IN-SITU CALIBRATION AND TRAJECTORY ENHANCEMENT OF UAV AND BACKPACK LIDAR SYSTEMS FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION FOREST INVENTORY

Abstract. Using remote sensing modalities for forest inventory has gained increasing attention in the last few decades. However, tools deriving accurate tree-level metrics are limited. This paper investigates feasibility of using LiDAR units onboard uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) and Backpack mobile mapping systems (MMS) equipped with an integrated Global Navigation Satellite System/Inertial System (GNSS/INS) to provide high quality point clouds accurate, high-resolution inventory. To improve acquired clouds, a system-driven strategy mounting parameters refinement trajectory enhancement terrain patches tree trunks is proposed. evaluate performance proposed strategy, two UAV one datasets covering plantation used this study. Through sequential system calibration enhancement, spatial accuracy improves from 20 cm 5 cm. For dataset, when initial reasonable accuracy, conducting significantly alignment cloud 30 3cm. lower-quality trajectory, data as reference, misalignment reduced 1 m 3