A LIGHTWEIGHT UAV-BASED LASER SCANNING SYSTEM FOR FOREST APPLICATION

Abstract Lightweight Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have become a cost effective alternative for studies which use aerial Remote Sensing with high temporal frequency requirements for small areas. Laser scanner devices are widely used for rapid tridimensional data acquisition, mainly as a complementary data source to photogrammetric surveying. Recent studies using laser scanner systems onboard UAVs for forestry inventory and mapping applications have presented encouraging results. This work describes the development and accuracy assessment of a low cost mapping platform composed by an Ibeo Lux scanner, a GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) antenna, an Inertial Navigation System Novatel Span-IGM-S1, integrating a GNSS receiver and an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), a Raspberry PI portable computer and an octopter UAV. The system was assessed in aerial mode using an UAV octopter developed by SensorMap Company. The resulting point density in a plot with trees concentration was also evaluated. The point density of this device is lower than conventional Airborne Laser Systems but the results showed that altimetric accuracy with this system is around 30 cm, which is acceptable for forest applications. The main advantages of this system are their low weight and low cost, which make it attractive for several applications.