Measurement of cylindrical objects through laser telemetry: application to a new forest caliper

Author

Demeyere, Michaël ; Dereine, Emmanuel ; Eugène, Christian ; Naydenov, Volodia

Author_Institution

Mechatronics Res. Center, Catholic Univ. of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Volume

51

Issue

4

fYear

2002

fDate

8/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

645

Lastpage

649

Abstract

The feasibility of a new method for robust radius determination of cylindrical objects is studied. The principle is based on laser telemetry under structured lighting, where a laser plane creates a line on the object under test, which is observed by a charge coupled device camera. The novelty is in what we call the "three-tangents method" for the radius calculation. We show that this method is the most reliable one, taking into account the particular curve\´s characteristics. We mainly applied it to tree measurements in forests, for which a pre-prototype caliper was built. Experimental results are given. A general accuracy of 1% on 10-50-cm diameter trunks is claimed for distances up to 3.5 m.

Keywords

CCD image sensors; diameter measurement; measurement by laser beam; telemetry; 0 to 3.5 m; 10 to 50 cm; charge coupled device camera; cylindrical object measurement; laser plane; laser telemetry; new forest caliper; object under test; robust radius determination; structured lighting; three-tangents method; tree measurements; trunks; Charge coupled devices; Charge-coupled image sensors; Data mining; Image processing; Instruments; Laser applications; Optical filters; Robustness; Telemetry; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9456

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TIM.2002.802264

Filename

1044682