Towards Sustainable Forest Management – Advancing Autonomy Approach in Forestry Operations for the Forests of the Future

Forestry is a vital economic sector in Austria, Europe, and many other regions worldwide. Modern machineries are extensively used for timber harvesting, selection, processing, and transportation across the diverse spectrum of forest management activities. These tasks often take place under challenging conditions, as forests are typically located in remote mountainous and valley areas. Currently, machines are powered by diesel engines and operated manually. This procedure has two major drawbacks: (1) diesel combustion produces significant emissions, and (2) manual operation endangers workers, leading to frequent severe accidents mainly due to human errors or misjudgments. Additionally, timber transportation depends on diesel-powered trucks, resulting in considerable CO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> emissions. To address these challenges, this paper presents measures aimed at achieving sustainable and automated timber harvesting and transportation processes. The ongoing research project focuses on two primary objectives: (1) reducing emissions through electrification and the use of local electric energy sources (e.g., hydroelectric power plants), and (2) developing autonomous forest transport systems, including loading-, unloading-, and transportation-processes.