Abstract An unmanned aircraft system was evaluated for its potential to capture imagery for use in plantation loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) regeneration surveys. Five stands located in the Virginia Piedmont were evaluated. Imagery was collected using a recreational grade unmanned aerial vehicle at three flight heights above ground with a camera capable of capturing red–green–blue imagery. Two computer vision approaches were evaluated for their potential to automatically detect seedlings. The results of the study indicated that the proposed methods were limited in capability of generating reliable counts of seedlings in the locations evaluated. In conditions with low numbers of natural seedlings and sufficiently large planted seedlings, the detection methods performed with higher levels of accuracy. Challenges including global positioning system errors and image distortion made comparisons between ground samples and imagery difficult. In summary, unmanned aircraft systems have potential for use in plantation pine regeneration surveys if the challenges encountered can be addressed.

中文翻译：

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人工飞行中的人工林火炬松幼苗计数：一个案例研究

摘要评价了一种无人驾驶飞机系统在人工种植火炬松（Pinus taeda）中捕获图像的潜力。L.）再生调查。对位于弗吉尼亚皮埃蒙特的五个看台进行了评估。图像是使用休闲级无人驾驶飞机在地面三个飞行高度上使用能够捕获红，绿，蓝图像的摄像机收集的。评估了两种计算机视觉方法自动检测幼苗的潜力。研究结果表明，所提出的方法在所评估位置产生可靠数量的幼苗的能力有限。在天然幼苗数量少而种植的幼苗足够多的条件下，检测方法的准确度更高。包括全球定位系统错误和图像失真在内的挑战使地面样本和图像之间的比较变得困难。综上所述，