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The feasibility of using autonomous forest vehicles (which can be regarded as logical developments in the ongoing automation of forest machines), the systems that could be applied in them, their potential advantages and their limitations (in the foreseeable future) are considered here. The aims were to analyse: (1) the factors influencing the degree of automation in logging; (2) the technical principles that can be applied to autonomous forest machines, and (3) the feasibility of developing an autonomous path-tracking forest vehicle. A type of vehicle that is believed to have considerable commercial potential is an autonomous forwarder. The degree of automation is influenced by increased productivity, the machine operator as a bottle-neck, cost reduction, and environmental aspects. Technical principles that can be applied to autonomous forest vehicles are satellite navigation, wheel odometry, laser scanner and radar. A new path-tracking algorithm has been developed to reduce deviations from the desired path by utilizing the driver’s steering commands. The presented system has demonstrated both possibilities and difficulties associated with autonomous forest machines. It is in a field study shown that it is quite possible for them to learn and track a path previously demonstrated by an operator with an accuracy of 0.1m on flat ground and also to detect and avoid unexpected obstacles. Although the forest machine safely avoids obstacles, the study shows that further research in the field of obstacle avoidance is needed to optimize performance and ensure safe operation in a real forest environment.

In conventional mechanized cut-to-length systems, a harvester fells and cuts trees into logs that are stored on the ground until a forwarder picks them up and carries them to landing sites. A proposed improvement is to place logs directly into the load spaces of transporting machines as they are cut. Such integrated loading could result in cost reductions, shorter lead times from stump to landing, and lower fuel consumption. However, it might also create waiting times for the machines involved, whereas multifunctional machines are likely to be expensive. Thus, it is important to analyze whether or not the advantages of any changes outweigh the disadvantages. The conventional system was compared with four potential systems, including two with autonomous forwarders, using discrete-event simulation with stochastic elements in which harvests of more than 1000 final felling stands (containing in total 1.6 million m³) were simulated 35 times per system. The results indicate that harwarders have substantial potential (less expensive on ≥80% of the volume and fuel consumption decreased by ≥18%) and may become competitive if key innovations are developed. Systems with cooperating machines have considerably less potential, limited to very specific stand conditions. The results conform with expected difficulties in integrating processing and transporting machines’ work in variable environments.

A number of algorithms for path tracking are described in the robotics literature. Traditional algorithms, like Pure Pursuit and Follow the Carrot, use position information to compute steering commands that make a vehicle follow a pre-defined path approximately. These algorithms are well known to cut corners, since they do not explicitly take into account the actual curvature of the path. In this paper we present a novel algorithm that uses recorded steering commands to overcome this problem. The algorithm is constructed within the behavioural paradigm common in intelligent robotics and is divided into three separate behaviours, each responsible for one aspect of the path-tracking task. The algorithm is implemented both on a simulator for autonomous forest machines and a physical small-scale robot. The results are compared with the Pure Pursuit and the Follow the Carrot algorithms and show a significant improvement in performance.

Many of the existing mobile-robot software packages do not include handling of sensors and actuators in a sufficiently systematic and uniform way, as described later in this section. The software framework proposed in this paper, denoted NAV2000, addresses the specific need for interchangeability of components in robotics. At the lowest level, sensors, and sometimes also actuators, often have to be replaced by similar, yet not identical, components. At a higher level, the target vehicle often changes during the work process. The presented software provides a framework that supports these replacements and allows configurations of sensors, actuators, and target machines to be specified and manipulated in an efficient manner. The system can be distributed over a network of computers if some software modules require more computing power, i.e. more hardware can be added to the system without any software changes. To accomplish sufficient monitoring of the system's health, a dedicated system keeps track of all software modules. The system uses logfiles to enable convenient debugging and performance analysis of hardware and software modules. The software has been developed as part of, and is currently in use in, a R&D-project for an autonomous path-tracking forest machine.

Autonomous navigation in forest terrain, where operation paths are rarely straight or flat and obstacles are common, is challenging. This paper evaluates a system designed to autonomously follow previously demonstrated paths in a forest environment without loading/unloading timber, a pre-step in the development of fully autonomous forwarders. The system consisted of a forwarder equipped with a high-precision global positioning system to measure the vehicle’s heading and position. A gyro was used to compensate for the influence of the vehicle’s roll and pitch. On an ordinary clear-cut forest area with numerous stumps, the vehicle was able to follow two different tracks, three times each at a speed of 1 m s^-1, with a mean path tracking error of 6 and 7 cm, respectively. The error never exceeded 35 cm, and in 90% of the observations it was less than 14 and 15 cm, respectively. This accuracy is well within the necessary tolerance for forestry operations. In fact, a human operator would probably have a hard time following the track more accurately. Hence, the developed systems function satisfactorily when using previously demonstrated paths. However, further research on planning new paths in unknown unstructured terrain and on loading/unloading is required before timber transports can be fully automated.

This paper describes the development of a real-time path planner for off-road vehicles using a simulator. The general idea with the presented system is to extend a standard path-tracking algorithm with a simulator that, in real-time, tries to predict collisions in a window forward in time. If a collision is predicted, the vehicle is stopped and a path-search phase is initiated. Variants of the original path are generated and simulated until a feasible path is found. The real vehicle then continues, now tracking the replanned path.

Wheel slip may increase the risk for wheel rutting and tear up ground vegetation and superficial roots and thereby decreasing the bearing capacity of the ground, but also reducing the growth of nearby standing forest trees. With increased slip, more energy is consumed for making wheel ruts in the ground, with increased fuel consumption as a result. This paper proposes a novel method for measuring slip in an uneven forest terrain with an 8WD forestry machine. This is done by comparing the wheel velocity reported by the machine and velocity measured with an accurate DGPS system. Field tests with a forestry machine showed that slip could be calculated accurately with the suggested method. The tests showed that there was almost no slip on asphalt or gravel surfaces. In a forest environment, 10–15% slip was common. A future extension of the method enabling estimation of the slip of each wheel pair in the bogies is also suggested.