Rapeseed Leaf Estimation Methods at Field Scale by Using Terrestrial LiDAR Point Cloud
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
A three-dimensional mesh model of rapeseed seeds was obtained by reconstructing the profile of the leaf surface, and a hybrid computer filter for data points has been developed. A large amount of data was used, the file sizes 576 MB, and the number of points is approximately 13 million. The latest laser equipment and powerful methods of processing arrays of signals are used. Automation and the use of robots in agricultural work is certainly advisable, and in particular, at the stage of determining the health of plants during their initial growth. At the same time, along with topographic methods, I want to suggest that "modern agronomists" expand the methods in their future articles. It would be possible to use the spectral ranges additionally, that is, real optical filtering of shades of reflected green to assess the health of plants, their flowers and fruits. The modern laser technology makes it easy to use tunable lasers with radiation in the desired spectral range, and the current state of photodetectors and optics makes it possible to identify characteristic narrow areas in the spectrum of reflected signals. Also, radiation sources and receivers can be installed not only along the perimeter of the site (as in Figure 2), but also vertically to illuminate through green plants to evaluate their mass growth.
In general, the presented article makes a good impression and can be published at presented form.
Author Response
Please refer to the attached "Response to Reviewer 1 Comments.pdf"
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
In the present study, the three dimensional (3D) point cloud from a terrestrial ser scanner (TLS) was used to recognize rapeseed with a custom hybrid filter, and then rapeseed leaf area was estimated based on Delaunay triangulation algorithm. The analysis results showed that the proposed method of monitoring rapeseed leaf area had a good performance. The study falls well within the scope of this journal and its results and analyses are credible. I have some concerns as following, and think it needs some minor modifications for publication.
1. For LA-SR in Summary, what does SR stand for? When The abbreviation SR appears firstly in the paper, it should be explained the same as leaf area (LA).
2. In the discussion section, some comparative analysis was given between the proposed method and the similar research based on point cloud technology.
Author Response
Please refer to the attached "Response to Reviewer 2 Comments.pdf"
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Please see attached docuemnt
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thanks for your review, we have carefully considered your suggestion and completed our response. Please refer to the attached "Response to Reviewer 3 Comments.pdf"
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
I recommend checking Figure 11 in the revised manuscript. When opening in multiple PDF readers the individual sub figures did not display correctly. I would also recommend revising the legend to have rounded values so that you don't have to display 12 significant digits.
My other recommendation would be to clarify line 420 in which you state that the differences are statistically significant. Please elaborate on how this impacts your other findings that indicate the methods are equivalent.
Author Response
Thanks for your new round of review, we've made several changes based on your suggestions.
Please refer to the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
