A LiDAR-based machine vision dataset for online volume measurement of sweetpotatoes

Volume is an important shape descriptor in postharvest quality evaluation and breeding programs of sweetpotatoes and is also valuable for other agricultural engineering applications. Traditional volume measurement methods based on water displacement are, however, laborious, destructive, and unsuitable for high-throughput online scenarios. To address this gap, this dataset was developed to support the advancement of non-destructive, automated online volume estimation using a LiDAR (light detection and ranging)-based three-dimensional (3-D) machine vision system. A total of 200 sweetpotato storage roots of the cultivar "Beauregard" were collected for constructing a 3-D multi-view imagery dataset. Each sample was imaged online using a short-range LiDAR camera (Intel RealSense™ L515) while traveling on a custom-built roller conveyor system that enables simultaneous translation and rotation for full-surface coverage. The curated dataset comprises raw color images (1280 × 720 pixels, .png format) and corresponding raw and segmented point clouds (1280 × 720 pixels, .laz format) for individual samples, alongside the reference volume measurements obtained using the standard water displacement method. In addition, to illustrate the modeling pipeline for volume prediction, the dataset provides the extracted geometric features derived from the segmented two-dimensional (2-D) masks and point clouds, and volume prediction results obtained through regression modeling. As the first publicly available LiDAR-based dataset for sweetpotato volume estimation, this dataset provides a valuable resource for developing and validating image processing pipelines, optimizing machine learning models, and advancing 3-D vision technologies for non-destructive, rapid measurement of the volume of irregularly shaped agricultural products.