Advice wanted regarding 2 LiDAR systems

[rubenu...@googlemail.com]

Hello,

We are looking into purchasing a new UAV LiDAR system for our group and I was wondering if anyone has worked with either of these systems and could share some experiences/thoughts on them. Both are from LiDARUSA. They would provide software to process and georeference the data with the help of a base station but I will and want to work with LAStools on their LAS/LAZ output datasets.

Revolution 120

- 3 returns

- 200 points per m2

- 3.8 cm accuracy at 50m above ground

Surveyor 32

- 2 returns

- 300 points per m2

- 2 cm accuracy at 40m above ground

Both systems look solid to me and the main differences are return numbers and points per m2 - what are your thoughts on those, which would "weigh" more, would be more important? Or are there other attributes that I am missing and should look at?

For context, we are working in agricultural settings, large fields, often monocrops, sometimes orchards. So absolute accuracy is not as important as being able to get the relative height of plants, volume of biomass and so on.

Thank you in advance for your assistance, I am happy to answer more questions, if details are needed.

Kind regards,

Ruben Ulbrich