Field Evaluation of an Autonomous Mobile Robot for Navigation and Mapping in Forest

This paper presents a mobile robotic system designed for autonomous navigation and forest and tree trait estimation, with a focus on the location of individual trees and the diameter of the trunks. The system integrates light detection and ranging data and images using a framework based on simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) and a deep learning model for trunk segmentation and tree keypoint detection. Field experiments conducted in a wooded area in Udine, Italy, using a skid-steered mobile robot, demonstrate the effectiveness of the system in navigating, while avoiding obstacles (even in cases where the Global Navigation Satellite System signal is not reliable). The results highlight that the proposed robotic system is capable of autonomously generating maps of forests as point clouds with minimal drift thanks to the loop closure strategy integrated in the SLAM algorithm, and estimating tree traits automatically.