Electrified, autonomous and sustainable forestry
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | AirForestry AB |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 7 067 000 |
| Project duration | July 2021 - February 2024 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | Calls within the Hållbar Industri area |
| Call | Upscaling for a sustainable industry |
Important results from the project
The project has shown that drone harvesting systems can achieve a high degree of automation and can compete with traditional, ground-based harvesting systems. Methods for autonomous tree selection have been developed and validated. An operator station that promotes a good and inclusive work environment has been developed. A potential increased net storage in Swedish forests of 20 million tons of CO2 per year from gentler forestry without logging roads has been demonstrated in simulations. There is potential for large biodiversity gains with airborne precision forestry.
Expected long term effects
The project has been able to demonstrate a degree of automation that enables competition with ground-based harvesting systems, which is a milestone that enables further development of drone-based harvesting systems and, in the long term, a completely new way of managing the forest. The project also indicates good opportunities for forestry to have a better working environment and become more inclusive. A drone-harvesting system has been shown to have great potential to significantly improve forestry´s impact on both climate and environment.
Approach and implementation
The project has been implemented in eight sub-projects to fulfilling the project´s main objective. The sub-projects´ workflow has looked a little different: the drone-based system´s impact on climate and environment was evaluated in literature studies and simulations; work environment improvements included evaluations of the problems with today´s work environment and the design and testing of an operator station; subgoals related to increasing the degree of automation included data collection, algorithm development, hardware design, and testing in a real environment.