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Research Projects >> Intelligent Controls and Communications Systems >> Current Research Project >>
Developing a Vision System for an Autonomous Forest Vehicle
The goal of this research is to implement a vision system on an existing Forest Crawler (owned by Forest Robots, LLC) so that it can easily navigate forest trails without intervention by an operator. The robots would transport material to a location on a road or landing for further processing or removal. The Forest Crawler can remove commercially valuable material consisting of small or medium logs, up to 24” in diameter. Further, non-commercial trees and brush can be removed either to reduce fuel load and/or to be made into chips for paper or fuel. Thus, using forest robots promises to be a cost effective method for reducing fuels and implementing other forest management practices. In addition, the small trees and other commercial timber would help provide timber for sawmills in the local communities and the other material could be burned for energy. Because wood is a carbon neutral fuel, the international market for wood pellets is growing and presently a surprising amount of this fuel is being shipped to Europe from the East Coast.
Although there are clearly a broad range of applications for autonomous vehicles, small, autonomous equipment holds particular promise for managing, in a cost-effective manner, the uncharacteristic dense forests which are prone to catastrophic wild fires. For instance, because of the low commercial value of most of the timber in the dense, small tree forests (sometimes referred to as “dog hair” timber stands) large equipment and labor-intensive techniques are not an economical way to treat or manage these forests. With small, autonomous vehicles, the capital costs and the labor costs are significantly reduced. Similarly, autonomous vehicles are a promising tool for fighting fires as they could scout fires and build fire breaks in areas that are too dangerous for people.
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