Kicking off ROSEWOOD4.0 study visits in Central West Hub

ROSEWOOD4.0’s Central West Hub partner, FBZ, organised last September 2020 an event focusing on digital solutions in forestry which replaced the originally planned “Digital Forest Days” and which had to be cancelled due to the COVID situation. At the Forestry Education Centre of the State Forestry and Wood Enterprise of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), ROSEWOOD4.0 partners and expert advisors, as well as guests, exchanged views on the latest aspects of digitalisation in forestry at conferences, workshops, and live demonstrations. The dialogue focused on adaptation strategies for Industry 4.0 applications in forestry and the potential for the integrated use of production data in the wood supply chain.

The advantages of forest digitisation were clearly demonstrated by the practical applicability of the FOVEA and LogBuch applications. Representatives of the RIF-Institute for Research and Transfer e.V. in Dortmund presented the Competence Center Forest and Wood 4.0, an institution that tests industry 4.0 applications for their applicability in forestry and ensures the transfer of knowledge into forestry practice. As a concrete application scenario of the centre, the “Smart Forest Worker” was subsequently presented, which aims to increase the work safety and job satisfaction of forestry workers by using digital technologies.

During the second thematic focus of the day, study tour participants enjoyed a live demonstration of decision support systems (DSS) for forestry practice, tutorial assistance systems and education and training systems. In addition, demonstrations were made during an excursion on the photo-optical study of wood, as well as on the “smart” use of highly mechanized wood harvesting systems using wood harvesting management systems (Timbermanager, Timbermaps).

Mr Olaf Müller explained in detail the digitalised education and training systems that use simulation, based on the training of foresters in the FBZ. He then clarified to what extent the digitalised inventories (virtual forest) can serve as a planning basis for further logging operations, also in the context of driving on sensitive ground. Finally, training demonstrations in augmented reality were given to support training for the European Chainsaw Certificate.

Download Study Visit presentation (PDF)

Additional images of the event