Harvesting, infrastructure, logistics

Skogkurs is intended to be the common body for competence in business development and management of forests and other land resources. Through its activities, Skogkurs will contribute to increasing competence among actors in the forestry industry, and disseminate forest and nature knowledge to schools and the public. Skogkurs has 36 member organizations. “Active forestry” is a nationwide offer with courses aimed at forest owners, forestry workers and forestry operators. The courses are also relevant for other groups that use forestry tools, either professionally or in their spare time. The courses provide practical guidance, have a small group size and skilled authorized instructors. These are short, targeted, locally adapted courses that are given close to home or in the workplace. The teaching program “Teach with the Forest” offers lessons from kindergarten to higher learning educator programs.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food contributes significantly to the financing of the activities. About half of the development projects where Skogkurs has project management are partly funded through one or more of the forestry's own funds. Adult education funding, funding from the Norwegian Environment Agency and project funding from other partners also make important financial contributions to Skogkurs' activities.

Scanner is under constant development. A measuring device, mounted at the towing hitch of a car. Sensors collect values, to assess the road quality of unpaved, single lane roads. The system consists of ultrasonic sensors to scan the cross section of a road segment, acceleration sensors to get information about the longitudinal roughness and a GPS sensor for locating the information. After data collection, an open configurable software bundle (implemented as GUI modules in iFOS) allows individual settings for the single sensor thresholds and algorithms to adopt the system to the own road maintenance concept. Mounted at the car of the forest ranger an easy and frequent data collection is possible and provides an early and objective knowledge about the constructional decline of road segments. Maintenance costs can  be reduced and reconstruction measures get execute mor accurate.  A logical data interpretation of the sensor values is possible. The assignment of the sensors towards different decay expressions on the road surface was conducted and semi- automatically related to road quality segment classification. Results show, that a single manual optical assessment of road segments miss first phases of road decay and underlines the potential of such systems. Tests and calibrations of the road-scanner allows a good data interpretation for the set task. Many degrees of freedom of the scanner and the data interpretation still leaves some open research questions.

LogBuch enables data aggregation in the forest, a simple evaluation of the data and further processing.  The combination of voice recording and Bluetooth button enables hands-free precise location of trees with simultaneous recording of important information about the tree, such as safety instructions or planning working procedures. The expected cut volume can be determined, and assortments planned. Foresters and harvester operators both receive detailed information (cross-linking with third party systems is supported). Technology: An A 2-frequency GNSS-receiver is connected to a smartphone to estimate the current position. A bluetooth button is used for language analysis. All spoken information can be recorded, automatically transcribed and classified, and the actual position lodged. WLAN is used for data exchange between smartphone, webserver and other users. Data can be exported as a map or table in georeferenced or not referenced formats (xlsx, GeoJson, shp, GPX, map). Applications: Preparation of timber harvesting, establishment of a digital "inventory", area mapping (also planting) by connecting recorded corner points, mapping of skid trails by the line function (harvest control or certification basis), remote navigation via Google Maps. In addition, recording of habitat trees etc., support for hunting organization (high seats, driven hunt stands, stalking routes etc.) and traffic safety measures.

HeProMo is an IT-based tool to predict the costs of timber harvesting scenarios under different aspects such as harvester logging. It allows certain settings to reflect the real situations in the forest. It provides preliminary costing and sensitivity analysis. estimation of productivity and cost for wood harvesting operations (preliminary costing). Writing and controlling offers for wood harvesting operations. Estimation of variables and their importance (sensitivity analysis). Well suitable for application in teaching , eductaion and research to identify key contributing factors and assessmen of their influence on the results. The productivity model (HeProMO) predicts quickly and with a good accurancy the costs for concrete timber harvestin scenarios. It allows the identification of optimization possibilities. The application is quite easy to handle and gives a solid basis for good economic choices.

Improved work safety through a sensor node network which connects to anyone carrying such a node and provides information about the current danger situation over a license-free band using Bluetooth low energy (BLE). For example: in a tree felling operation with a harvester which is supported by a forest worker, any person with such a little IT-device in his / her pocket (such as supervision personal, field forester, …) will get information about the position of the harvester and the work the harvester is doing. On the other hand, also the harvester has the information about these people. Risk alert warnings are sent to actors automatically, risk zones and risk status can be retrieved from actors, offenses of critical overlaps in risk safety zones are identified. The system is using u-Blox M8N GPS modules and map visualization on screens. The information gets translated to a danger situation depending on the individual work-situation (for example larger danger area when the harvester is cutting a tree than while driving). Communication of 150 - 700m, up to 9 slave nodes and battery allows 50h usage. GPS accuracy around 2.5m under forest conditions. The system may connect to a Cloud. This opens further data processing options, such as inclusion of passers-by via GSM-net or team-oriented data analysis for work-safety education needs. 

With Woodlogistics, a modular software, the entire wood procurement process is controlled and optimised from the forest via the logging companies and hauliers to the sawmills. The aim of the web-based system solution is to make the purchase of roundwood by sawmills more efficient, to provide continuous information on the current status and thus to increase the trust of all parties involved. The basis for this is that the essential information can be retrieved quickly and transparently by the right people at any time.

The platform comprises three modules:

1. Roundwood takeover module: provides up-to-date online information and stores all relevant documents on roundwood transport to the wood-processing company. In addition, the data is automatically synchronised with the measuring system on the factory site. 
2. Information and communication module: Stands for simple, fast and cross-company communication. It contains the location-independent provision of all essential information for suppliers, log buyers and hauliers. It also provides transfer data, the forest delivery note and individual master data.
3. Planning and control module: With this module, purchasing budgets can be allocated with the current target/actual status. It also contains a closing entry module with automatic transfer to the ERP system. The included freight cost module enables transport controlling.

 The online portal is an automatic method for identifying illegally cut timber transports from Romania. The users are able to observe alerts from satellites indicating information and once every few days (between 2 and 7 days depending on the satellite) any change in the aerial image associated with the forest vegetation in Romania. The portal also accesses the SUMAL database of the Ministry of Water and Forests in real time. From this database, information is extracted to be processed in the internal system, about the enhancement documents on wood harvests, the locations from where the timber transports are loaded and the information related to these points.The permits on wood harvest became digitalized, therefore all harvesting activity can be checked by satellite monitoring while the transports must obtain a unique code before leaving the place of loading. This code is only obtained after the transport information has been entered into the system, including the location where the code was requested.
The portal, through further developments, also contains an API (set learned of rules), which allows automatic access to all information publicly presented on this portal (layers, transport coordinates and related metadata, enhancement documents, etc.), so that other interested actors can make analyzes that will lead to stopping illegal logging.

Forestry crane work is often an isolated and rugged business carried out in challenging temperatures and harsh environments. Hiab’s HiVision™is transforming the working conditions and productivity using virtual reality technology, goggles, external cameras. Precision  and efficient log lifting every time - all from the safety and comfort of the crane cabin. HiVision™ is the first fully digitalised solution that gives a 270 degree view horizontally and 130 degree view vertically using external cameras mounted to the body of the equipment. The virtual reality technology assesses the external working conditions so the operator can stay safely within the truck cabin. Once the ‘target’ has been identified, the system allows the operator to guide the crane using an electronic joystick mounted on each armrest of the truck’s passenger seat. 

Thanks to TimFlow it is possible to check if the exploited wood is legal, if the supplier companies meet the requirements of the company's Due Dilligence system; Whether or not the wood comes from buffer zones of national parks or from other areas where intervention is not allowed. The most important quality of the Timflow system is the unprecedented level of transparency. All GPS data collected is publicly available on the portal also in English, which allows local and international stakeholders to check log shipments. Users can check via Timflow:

• all transports in the country from the last 12 months which have reached the gates of HS Timber Productions’ sawmills in Romania;
• information on transport documents;
• photos of the cargo;
• truck routes;
• in addition, users can request copies of the transport documents.

In addition, users can request copies of the transport documents.With the help of Timflow, HS Timber Group ensures that all shipments are legal, meet the requirements of the Due Diligence system and that the loaded timber does not come from buffer zones of national parks. Timflow is an important part of HS Timber Group's Due Diligence system, which strongly supports the group's efforts to reduce the risk of non-compliant timber in the supply chain. 

The application started in April 2017, the number of registered users grew 60% in the first two months following the update, and the number of transports checked on the platform surpassed the 3,000 mark – a growth of 75%. In 2017 over the first six months in operation, Timflow has recorded real-life data from all the trucks delivering logs to the first company implementing the traceability system. This includes the precise routes of the transports, a reference to the documents of origin and photos of the cargo. For each of the 16,000 transports (as of October 2017) a unique dataset is stored securely on the Timflow servers.