3D tree reconstruction from laser range data

Jonathan Binney, Gaurav S. Sukhatme

Abstract: We present a method for reconstructing 3D models of tree branch structure from laser range data. Our approach is probabilistic, and uses general knowledge of tree structure to guide an iterative reconstruction process. Our goal is to recover parameters such as branch locations, angles, radii, and lengths, as well as connectivity information between branches. These parameters can then be fed into functional-structural plant models to study the relationships between the structure of a plant, its environment, and its internal biology. In this paper we present an algorithm for finding these parameters, and results on both simulated and real datasets.