About AutoForst
AutoForst - Advanced Automated Timber Value Chain
AutoForst addresses central challenges of Austrian forestry, such as skills shortages, high accident risks, rising bureaucracy and greenhouse gas emissions, through the comprehensive automation of the entire timber value chain. The project develops and integrates innovative technologies in the fields of artificial intelligence, image processing, sensor technology, and automated drones, cranes and lorries, in order to increase efficiency, safety and traceability. Special attention is paid to meeting the complex requirements of forestry applications, such as changing weather conditions and difficult-to-access terrain. The developed solutions are implemented in prototypes together with Austrian industrial partners and tested under real conditions in the forest. In addition, recommendations on ecological, economic, social and legal aspects are being drawn up to support a sustainable and responsible introduction of automated forestry systems.
value chain
From forest management, timber harvesting, loading, transport and unloading through to wood processing. The aim of AutoForst is the automation and digitalisation of all process steps through the use of intelligent technologies such as drones, cranes and lorries, in order to increase safety, efficiency and sustainability along the entire value chain. This creates a seamless and traceable process chain that serves as the basis for a sustainable forestry sector for the future.
Individual projects
Project 1 - Future Forest Management
Forestry has great untapped digitalisation potential, meaning that the value chain has hitherto only been digitalised in isolated areas. In the project, existing technologies are intelligently networked and purposefully further developed to enable a holistic digitalisation of the entire process chain. This creates end-to-end, more efficient and future-proof digital solutions for forestry.
Project 2 - Advanced Sensor and Control Technologies for Automated Forestry Machinery
The automation of forestry machinery is made difficult by high system complexity as well as strict requirements regarding functional safety and operational reliability. Within the project, safety concepts are developed, digital data systems are integrated and prototypes are validated under real operating conditions. This results in verified automation solutions as well as catalogues of measures and lists of requirements for the safe deployment of automated systems.
Project 3 – Remote operation of automated forestry machinery
Reliable data communication is the fundamental prerequisite for automated forestry processes, but it is complicated by heterogeneous networks and environmental influences such as topography and weather. In the project, a robust and fail-safe data infrastructure based on various communication technologies such as LTE, 5G, LoRaWAN, satellite connections and drone-based radio relays is being developed and validated under real-world conditions. This enables secure, high-performance and reliable communication for automated applications and teleoperations.
Project 4 - Optimised Timber Utilisation – Quality Assessment & Process Optimisation
In the sawmill, pulp and paper industries, manual processes, subjective assessments and inefficient material flows lead to errors and avoidable delays. The project develops new systems for log sorting, automated sampling, optimised mill logistics and digitalised material flows, which are implemented using AI-based image analysis and semi-automatic unloading systems. This makes processes more objective, efficient and interconnected, as well as reducing lead times and waiting times along the entire value chain.