Fuzzy Hough Transform-Based Methods for Extraction and Measurements of Single Trees in Large-Volume 3D Terrestrial LIDAR Data

This startup study suggests that more accurate and quicker methods of forestry terrestrial LIDAR data analysis can be developed, but new benchmark data sets with the ground truth data known are necessary for these methods to be validated. It follows from the literature review that the improvement in the methods can be attained by the use of newer Hough transform-based (HT) and other robust fuzzy methods for data segmentation and tree measurements. Segmentation of trees can be done by the limit fuzzification of the data around the breast height. Several HT variants having different properties can be applied to measure the diameter at breast height and the accuracies better than those offered by the commercial software seem to be attainable.