The document provides an overview of activities for piloting the SLOPE demonstrator. It summarizes preparations for demonstrators in Sover, Italy in spring 2016 and Annaberg, Austria in autumn 2016. It describes the survey site in Annaberg including the characteristics of the forest stand and outlines activities already performed at the site. It then presents prospective plans for the harvesting demo in Annaberg, including marking trees with RFIDs, felling, extracting and processing trees. An agreement with Austrian Federal Forests to support the demo is also summarized.

1. Project SLOPE
1
WP 7 – Piloting the SLOPE demonstrator

2. Project SLOPE
T 7.2 – Preparation of Demonstrators
Cork, January 20th, 2016
Gianni Picchi, Raffaele Spinelli, Giovanni Aminti
CNR-IVALSA
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016

3. Overview
• Status: concluded
• Length: until month 19
• Involved Partners
 Leader: CNR
 Participants: BOKU, COAST, COMPOLAB, GT, GRE, ITENE,
MHG, TRE
 Aim: Comparison of the current and innovative SLOPE system
for forest survey, harvest and timber supply chain.
• Outputs: Deliverables D7.02 (finalized and approved)
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016

4. Overview
• The objective of this task is to set up the tests for the new
SLOPE system and for comparing it to the main alternative
systems (current)
• Suitable demo sites have been identified in Sover (Italy) and
Annaberg (Austria)
• Demos and tentative harvest periods have been agreed with
landowners and harvesting companies, also according to their
specific requirements
• An evaluation methodology had been established
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016

5. Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016
Timeline of activities
Pre-demo activities are planned in synergy with other WPs
(mainly WP4)
Jan DecApr Jun/Jul Sep/Oct Nov
Pre-test of
machines
(workshops yards)
2016
May
Pre-test of machines
(in forest, single
machines)
Pilot in
Montesover
Pilot in
Annaberg
Final
conference
(EIMA 2016)

6. Comparative analysis
Benefit analysis
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016
not fulfilled 0-2
partial fulfilled 3-4
moderate fulfilled 5-6
mostly fulfilled 7-8
fully fulfilled 9-10
tree marking degree of fulfilment
criterion forester/marking spray weighting result/valence
independence from know-how 10 10 1
independence from work experience 8 10 0,8
independence from technical skills 10 10 1
independence from weather 9 10 0,9
cost-efficiency 9 10 0,9
independence from power supply 10 5 0,5
traceability after logging 3 10 0,3
easy legibility 10 5 0,5
minimum expenditure of time 8 10 0,8
error rate 9 5 0,45
usability 9 5 0,45
robustness 9 10 0,9
Summe 100 8,5
e.g. How important is independence from know-how for the degree of fulfilment of tree marking?
degree of fulfilment
CURRENT SYSTEM
tree marking degree of fulfilment
criterion forester/visual and RFID marking weighting result/valence
independence from know-how 5 10 0,5
independence from work experience 8 10 0,8
independence from technical skills 5 10 0,5
independence from weather 5 10 0,5
cost-efficiency 2 10 0,2
independence from power supply 1 5 0,05
traceability after logging 10 10 1
easy legibility 5 5 0,25
minimum expenditure of time 5 10 0,5
error rate 9 5 0,45
usability 5 5 0,25
robustness 5 10 0,5
Summe 100 5,5
SLOPE

7. Business processes
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016
Operations
Supervisor
Forest
Owner
Customer Harvesting
Company
Freight
Company
decision about harvesting
operation
choosing forest stand
estimation of
harvest yield
for
calculations
searching for customer, harvesting company and freight company
planning
harvesting
operation and
transport
harvesting
operation
transportation
take over at
the mill
evaluation of
quality and
quantity
partial paiment of harvesting
company
payment of forest owner, final payment of harvesting company, payment of
freight company
supervision
supervision
decision about
harvesting operation
searching for
customer
contract notes
customer, harvesting
company and freight
company
planning harvesting
operation and
transport
harvesting operation
transportation
take over at the mill
choosing forest
stand
estimation of
harvest yield for
calculations
searching for freight
company
searching for
harvesting company
payment 30 days after
service provision; harvesting
c. is payed by the forest
owner, freight c. is payed by
the forest owner or by the
customer
economic necessity, decision
based on forest management plan
cutting maturity, composition of
tree species, age class, yield class,
volume, stand density, quality
forest management plan
(based on inventory data),
experienced estimation
tree species; approximate
quantity, quality and price
approximate quantity;
mill to supply
harvesting and fright company:
contract with companies,
services, period of time, price
(€/m3
), time limits, terms of
payment, provision in the event
of non-compliance
customer: contract involved
companies, tree species,
quality, quantity, assortments,
price (€/m3
), period of time,
terms of payment, provision in
the event of non-compliance
compositon of tree species, age class,
approximate volume, terrain
conditions, harvesting method,
harvesting period, approximate price
area, sea level, weather
conditions, tree species, middle
diameter at breast height,
approximate volume, surface,
inclination, harvesting method
tree selection by expert or forest
worker, selection of skid trails
order, which
forest location
and mill, period
of time,
quantity, access-
bill mill
grading data
dimension data,
dimension bill from
the mill within 30
days to the
employer, payment
within another 30
days
access-bill from
customer, contact
between transport c. and
forest owner

8. Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016
Processes analysis
Each process will be analyzed by identifying its work elements
working cycle
conventional
description
empty run drive till stopping of the carriage
hook
from the stoppage of the carriage until driving of the
carriage
load run
from starting of the carriage until the stoppage at the
landing
land spool out and spool in of the towing rope
unhook
from setting in motion of the forest worker till
spooling in of the towing rope
manipulation with
the excavator
warping of the stems when landing is difficult
expiry caused
waiting times
carriage is waiting, because the processor driver is still
working
interruptions ≤ 15
minutes
working interruptions less or equal 15 minutes
interruptions > 15
minutes
working interruptions superior 15 minutes
working cycle
SLOPE
description
empty run drive till stopping of the carriage
hook
from the stoppage of the carriage until driving of
the carriage
load run with
RFID reading and
weighing by load
cell
from starting of the carriage until the stoppage at
the landing
land spool out and spool in of the towing rope
unhook
from setting in motion of the forest worker till
spooling in of the towing rope
manipulation
with the
excavator
warping of the stems when landing is difficult
expiry caused
waiting times
carriage is waiting, because the processor driver is
still working
interruptions ≤
15 minutes
working interruptions less or equal 15 minutes
interruptions >
15 minutes
working interruptions superior 15 minutesCable yarder

9. Process analysis
• Aspects considered
 Time consumption (overall time needed for machines and operators)
 Productivity (output according to the elemental unit, e.g. m3, ha, etc)
 Accuracy (quality of the output, where applicable)
 Cost calculation (overall cost, including consumable elements)
 Work load (strain for operators, where applicable)
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016

10. EIMA 2016
 Bologna (Italy), 10-13 November;
 Second biggest EU Agro-forest machinery fair;
 235,000 visitors (2014 edition);
 Scientific and technical conferences organized
in collaboration with UNACOMA and ENAMA;
 Business oriented event, with growing interest
in forest machinery themes and precision
forestry/agriculture technologies.
 Available Greifenberg stand with intelligent
machines prototypes and videos
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016
BOLOGNA
FI
MI
TN
ROME

11. Project SLOPE
T7.3 – Trials recommendation and
validation cycle
Cork, January 20th, 2016
Kühmaier Martin, Pichler Gerhard, Kastner Maximilian, Stampfer Karl
Institute of Forest Engineering
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016

12. Contents of the presentation
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016
1. Overview
2. Introduction
3. Survey site Annaberg
4. Performed activities on the survey site
5. Prospective plans for the harvesting demo
6. Agreement regarding the Austrian Federal
Forests support

13. 1. Overview
• Status: in progress
• Length: until month 36
• Involved Partners
 Leader: BOKU
 Participants: GRAPHITECH, CNR, COMBOLAB, MHG, BOKU,
GRE, TRE, ITENE
 Aim: Trials and Validation of the SLOPE system on survey
sites in Austria and Italy
• Outputs: Deliverables D7.031, D7.032, D7.04 and D7.05
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016

14. 2. Introduction
• The objective of this task is to validate the new SLOPE system
in a mountainous forest scenario
• The new system will be tested in Sover (Italy) in spring 2016
and Annaberg (Austria) in autumn 2016
• The efficiency of the SLOPE system will be measured by
methods which were explained in D7.02
• This should lead to the strengths and weaknesses of the new
system and support improvement
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016

15. Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016
3. Survey site Annaberg
• Study site is located in the Austrian province Salzburg, in the village
Annaberg im Lammertal
• Survey area (8 ha) lies on Promberg (905 m - 1144 m)
• SLOPE harvesting area (0.42 ha; 1031 m - 1128 m)

16. 3. Survey site Annaberg
• SLOPE harvesting area (0.42 ha; first section):
 first 200 m x 30 m section is the SLOPE harvesting area
 UAV+TLS survey was performed in autumn 2015
 northwest exposed
 slope range of 60 % - 100 %
 small flatter part in the upper sector 30 % - 60 %
 90 % spruce; 10 % firs and larches spread over the harvesting area
 80 years old
 stock: 466 m3
 number of stems: 345
 basal area: 34.8 m2
 mean dbh: 33.7 cm
 mean hight (hLorey): 30.2 m
 yield class spruce: 15.4 m3/ha/year
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016

17. 3. Survey site Annaberg
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016
• SLOPE harvesting area (0.42 ha; first section):
 Preliminary clearing: Extraction of about 115 RFID marked trees
(150 m3) → this is about a third of the standing trees
• Additional harvesting area ÖBF agreement (second section):
 Also 200 m x 30 m
 about half a hectare
 Same forest stand characteristics
 Another 115 trees (150 m3)
• In total over the whole harvesting
area of 400 m x 30 m about 230 trees
(about 300 m3), which must be extracted during the SLOPE demo
in autumn 2016 in Austria

18. Technical Meeting
Cork 20.01.2016
Survey area
SLOPE harvesting area
Additional harvesting area
ÖBF agreement

19. 4. Performed activities on the survey site
• Selection of the cable line in SAGIS and generating GPS coordinates
(survey area, SLOPE harvesting area)
• Marking corner points and borders of the survey area and
harvesting area with colour spray on the basis of GPS data in
Annaberg
• Marking cable line adapted on terrain conditions with marking tape
• Making a complete enumeration for the SLOPE harvesting area
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016

20. 3. Performed activities on the survey site
Marking harvesting trees
with white colour spray
UAV survey by COASTWAY
05.10.-09.10.2015
TLS survey by TREEMETRICS
02.11.-06.11.2015
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016

21. 5. Prospective plans for the harvesting demo
• Marking thinning trees with RFID tags
(Smartrac Shortdipole Monza 5) and the
aid of Treemetrics Forest Application
(forest map based on UAV and TLS data)
• Motor-manual felling of the marked
trees by forest worker
• Extracting trees with a modified CRG 15
carriage (RFID scanning unit) in
combination with a SIBERIAN tower
yarder
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016

22. • Processing trees with an modified ARBRO (RFID scanning/marking,
determining timber quality)
• Performing a time study for the new SLOPE system (modified
carriage and processor head) and a cost calculation for the
performance evolution
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016
5. Prospective plans for the harvesting demo

23. Mid-term Review
2/Jul/15
6. Agreement regarding the Austrian Federal
Forests support
• The Harvesting date must be fixed one month in advance
• Forestry workers of the Austrian Federal Forests will perform
the felling operation
• The Austrian Federal Forests will provide a cable yarder
operator and a processor operator
• The costs of a normal harvesting operation will be taken over
by the Austrian Federal Forests
• Additional costs must be covered by the SLOPE project

24. Contact info
Martin Kühmaier: martin.kuehmaier@boku.ac.at
Gerhard Pichler: gerhard.pichler@boku.ac.at
Maximilian Kastner: maximilian.kastner@boku.ac.at
Thank you for your attention!!
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016

25. References & Picture sources
 Last downloaded on 21.12.2015:
• http://www.holz-broeker.de/images/ansicht-luftbild-saegewerk-schnittholz.jpg
• http://www.riebli-forst.ch/bilder/maschinen/holz-lkw04_b.jpg
• http://www.rfidjournal.com/lib/x/a/assets/2009/11/5350-3.jpg
• http://www.dronelife.com/cms/sites/default/files/product/eBee_0.jpg
• http://www.woodbusiness.ca/images/heads-arbro.jpg
• http://www.sparpointgroup.com/images/uploadedImages/Images/02.10.11.FARO-in-the-woods.png
• http://www.blaueberge.at/region-sommer.html#!lightbox[annaberg]/1/
• http://www.greifenberg.it/carrellipescanti/crg15s/gallery_2.jpg
• http://www.greifenberg.it/teleferiche/siberian/gallery_6.jpg
 Picchi G. technical meeting Annaberg-UAV survey
Technical Meeting, Cork
20.01.2016