Advances in using robots in forestry operations

Abstract

Introduction 2 Challenges to using robots in forestry operations 3 Knowing the state of the machine 4 Knowing where the machine is located 5 Knowing the location of surrounding objects 6 Knowing how to plan the work 7 Moving around in the forest 8 Reaching and handling the trees 9 Converting trees into products 10 Extracting logs or trees to roadside landings 11 Remote-controlled operations 12 Conclusion 13 Future trends 14 Acknowledgements 15 Where to look for further information 16 References

Exploring the feasibility of autonomous forestry operations: Results from the first experimental unmanned machine

“…Due to the financial impact of forestry in the Scandinavian economy, the interest of moving toward unmanned machines for large‐scale forestry operations began decades ago, at least in Sweden (Halme & Vainio, 1998; Lindroos et al, 2019). Early examples consist of radio controlled machines, such as BESTEN (eng.…”

“…As a result, machine manufacturers have recently shown an increasing interest in adopting basic automation technology, as one incremental step to boost work productivity and efficiency by making the control of machines more intuitive for operators. Examples of this adoption features the Intelligent Boom Control from John Deere, the Smart Flow and Smart Crane from Komatsu Forest, and the so-called intelligent hydraulic valves, which have given rise to the innovation of these new products (EATON, 2019;Gingras & Charette, 2017;Komatsu Forest, 2017;Lindroos et al, 2019;Manner et al, 2019;Reitz et al, 2019;Technion Onlinesince, 2017).…”

“…Therefore, production of such machines did not reach adoption in the market. Nevertheless, unmanned machines with different levels of automation can address some of the challenges facing forestry today, including reduced soil damage, pollution, costly manufacturing, and lack of skilled machine operators (Lindroos et al, 2017(Lindroos et al, , 2019. Thus, research to move from manual control to full-automation with such machines has continued since.…”

Exploring the Feasibility of Autonomous Forestry Operations: Results from the First Experimental Unmanned Machine

“…As a result, machine manufacturers have recently shown an increasing interest in adopting basic automation technology, as one incremental step to boost work productivity and efficiency by making the control of machines more intuitive for operators. Examples of this adoption features the Intelligent Boom Control from John Deere, the Smart Flow and Smart Crane from Komatsu Forest, and the so-called intelligent hydraulic valves, which have given rise to the innovation of these new products (Lindroos et al, 2019;Gingras and Charette, 2017;Reitz et al, 2019;Manner et al, 2019;Technion, 2017;Komatsu Forest AB, 2017;EATON, 2019).…”

“…Due to the financial impact of forestry in the Scandinavian economy, the interest of moving towards unmanned machines for large-scale forestry operations began decades ago, at least in Sweden (Halme and Vainio, 1998;Lindroos et al, 2019). Early examples consist of radio controlled machines, such as BESTEN (eng.…”