Assistance System for an Automatic Loading Process. Abstract

One of the biggest challenges forestry contractors face today is high employee fluctuation, resulting in unexperienced operators with minor background in forestry. On the other hand, forwarding shows a huge potential towards automation. An assistance system which semi-automates the loading process during a cut-to-length logging process would increase the productivity significantly, in particular for new operators. Especially for them, positioning the grapple and gripping the log without ground penetration are the most challenging parts of loading phases due to a high number of simultaneous control tasks. The presented assistance system is able to execute these phases completely automatically. The assistance system consists of two essential components, a log detection algorithm and a control system for driving the forestry crane.