Autonomous forest regeneration for a sustainable bioeconomy (AutoPlant)

Purpose and goal:

The aim of Autoplant is to develop economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable technology solutions for gentle and productive forest regeneration through automation. Specifically, the aim is to develop autonomous site preparation and planting with high precision, low environmental impact and a good working environment. In step 2, the focus was on developing and testing sub-systems that together form a prototype if the project proceeds to step 3.

The sub-systems and the integration tests indicate large potential, specially from an environmental perspective. Expected results and effects:

New technology has been developed for gentle forest regeneration, automatic plant management, global and local route planning, detection of planting spots and follow-up. The field experiments show the potential to reach the effects: - Reduced carbon loss after harvesting through efficient and gentle forest regeneration.

- Significantly reduced soil disturbances (from 50% to 2%). - Energy efficiency through a smaller machine/lighter planting head and precision site preparation. - Better working environment including improved gender equality. Approach and implementation:

The collaboration is strengthened between researchers, manufacturers and users. Through a series of common activities, experts from all organizations have steered focus towards relevant solutions. Four test platforms were used, and súb-systems integrated during a field test.

Great technical progress has been achieved in short time towards sustainable solutions with better working environment. The project shows challenges and opportunities of future development. The communication has focused on gender equality and increased acceptance of automation within forestry.