Forest harvest in mountain conditions poses a series of organizational problems. Working on steep terrain, and in areas typically served by a relatively poor road network makes the cost of forest operations higher, and thus the products (assortments) obtained less competitive. From the equipment point of view on flatland (Central and Northern Europe) the typical industrial harvesting system is based on cut-to-length (CTL) wheeled harvesters and forwarders common in European Nordic Countries. This working system is relatively standardized and several Control System solutions are currently in use for real-time control of the whole supply chain, from harvesting to purchasing and delivery. Forestry operations in mountain areas are seldom performed by the harvester/forwarder system, being the sector still characterized by manual felling and extraction of timber (or whole trees) by cable cranes, which can be regarded as a completely different working system. Due to the limits posed by steep terrain conditions, typical poor road network of mountain areas, limited storage and operational room (pads, roadside areas, yards, etc.) those harvesting and extracting systems are more expensive and less flexible compared to the CTL system based on wheeled machines, and as a consequence, the assortments produced in mountain areas are generally less competitive (due to a higher market cost). Due to the importance of mountain forestry, more powerful and intelligent machines must be developed for forest works in steep terrain. The project will develop an integrated system for the optimization of the forest production in mountain areas. For this purpose geo-information from remote sensing and UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) data will be integrated, allowing macro and local analysis to characterize the forest resources in mountain areas. Spatial information will be integrated with multi-sensor data in a model for Sustainable Forest Management and for the optimization of the logistics during forest operations. Sustainability of alternative felling procedures (manual or automated) in mountain sites will be evaluated and accordingly development of optimized site-specific procedure/machines will be proposed. Intelligent systems will be integrated in the cable crane/processor head to measure a series of data for the assessment of the assortment variety. For this purpose, different NDT methods as well as pioneering chemometric analysis will be tested during the project, and appropriate methods selected. Additionally, "traditional" traceability (e.g. with RFT tags) will be coupled with chemometric data, to trace the material, from the site along the whole supply chain. Information about material origin, quality and availability will be integrated in a unique system, accessible online and available in real time to a series of operators, such as the logistic operators, which will help to optimize the transport and locate storage areas, the brokers and end-users enabling online stock exchange and the forest owners. The integration and post-processing of gathered data will be used for further optimization of the "mountain forest models" and finally silviculture routines.
SLOPE FP7-NMP.2013.3.0-2 "Integrated processing and control systems for sustainable forest production in mountain areas"
Sandak;
2014
Abstract
Forest harvest in mountain conditions poses a series of organizational problems. Working on steep terrain, and in areas typically served by a relatively poor road network makes the cost of forest operations higher, and thus the products (assortments) obtained less competitive. From the equipment point of view on flatland (Central and Northern Europe) the typical industrial harvesting system is based on cut-to-length (CTL) wheeled harvesters and forwarders common in European Nordic Countries. This working system is relatively standardized and several Control System solutions are currently in use for real-time control of the whole supply chain, from harvesting to purchasing and delivery. Forestry operations in mountain areas are seldom performed by the harvester/forwarder system, being the sector still characterized by manual felling and extraction of timber (or whole trees) by cable cranes, which can be regarded as a completely different working system. Due to the limits posed by steep terrain conditions, typical poor road network of mountain areas, limited storage and operational room (pads, roadside areas, yards, etc.) those harvesting and extracting systems are more expensive and less flexible compared to the CTL system based on wheeled machines, and as a consequence, the assortments produced in mountain areas are generally less competitive (due to a higher market cost). Due to the importance of mountain forestry, more powerful and intelligent machines must be developed for forest works in steep terrain. The project will develop an integrated system for the optimization of the forest production in mountain areas. For this purpose geo-information from remote sensing and UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) data will be integrated, allowing macro and local analysis to characterize the forest resources in mountain areas. Spatial information will be integrated with multi-sensor data in a model for Sustainable Forest Management and for the optimization of the logistics during forest operations. Sustainability of alternative felling procedures (manual or automated) in mountain sites will be evaluated and accordingly development of optimized site-specific procedure/machines will be proposed. Intelligent systems will be integrated in the cable crane/processor head to measure a series of data for the assessment of the assortment variety. For this purpose, different NDT methods as well as pioneering chemometric analysis will be tested during the project, and appropriate methods selected. Additionally, "traditional" traceability (e.g. with RFT tags) will be coupled with chemometric data, to trace the material, from the site along the whole supply chain. Information about material origin, quality and availability will be integrated in a unique system, accessible online and available in real time to a series of operators, such as the logistic operators, which will help to optimize the transport and locate storage areas, the brokers and end-users enabling online stock exchange and the forest owners. The integration and post-processing of gathered data will be used for further optimization of the "mountain forest models" and finally silviculture routines.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
