{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,18]],"date-time":"2026-05-18T10:55:24Z","timestamp":1779101724988,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"24","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,14]],"date-time":"2020-12-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1607904000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100014438","name":"Business Finland","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["26004155"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["26004155"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100014438","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Odometry during forest operations is demanding, involving limited field of vision (FOV), back-and-forth work cycle movements, and occasional close obstacles, which create problems for state-of-the-art systems. We propose a two-phase on-board process, where tree stem registration produces a sparse point cloud (PC) which is then used for simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM). A field test was carried out using a harvester with a laser scanner and a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) performing forest thinning over a 520 m strip route. Two SLAM methods are used: The proposed sparse SLAM (sSLAM) and a standard method, LeGO-LOAM (LLOAM). A generic SLAM post-processing method is presented, which improves the odometric accuracy with a small additional processing cost. The sSLAM method uses only tree stem centers, reducing the allocated memory to approximately 1% of the total PC size. Odometry and mapping comparisons between sSLAM and LLOAM are presented. Both methods show 85% agreement in registration within 15 m of the strip road and odometric accuracy of 0.5 m per 100 m. Accuracy is evaluated by comparing the harvester location derived through odometry to locations collected by a GNSS receiver mounted on the harvester.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12244088","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,14]],"date-time":"2020-12-14T21:25:08Z","timestamp":1607981108000},"page":"4088","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Navigation and Mapping in Forest Environment Using Sparse Point Clouds"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Paavo","family":"Nevalainen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Future Technologies, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6556-2213","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Qingqing","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Future Technologies, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1960-7200","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Timo","family":"Melkas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Mets\u00e4teho Oy, 01300 Vantaa, Finland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kirsi","family":"Riekki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Mets\u00e4teho Oy, 01300 Vantaa, Finland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tomi","family":"Westerlund","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Future Technologies, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jukka","family":"Heikkonen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Future Technologies, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"149","DOI":"10.5849\/njaf.13-016","article-title":"Impact of Whole-Tree and Cut-to-Length Harvesting on Postharvest Condition and Logging Costs for Early Commercial Thinning in Maine","volume":"30","author":"Benjamin","year":"2013","journal-title":"North. 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