Research

AutoForst seeks to address challenges in the forest wood supply chain through advanced automation of the individual process steps of the timber value chain. While recent progress has been made, particularly in the development of assistance systems, the level of automation in forestry remains relatively low. AutoForst aims to fully automate operational procedures, reducing the need for on-site personnel, especially in hazardous situations, and improving safety. The integration of automated technologies, such as cranes, trucks, and drones, will increase efficiency, with human intervention required only for tasks that machines cannot independently perform. Additionally, automation enables comprehensive traceability throughout the round timber value chain. By adopting sustainable propulsion systems, AutoForst ensures environmental sustainability and harnesses the local environment’s advantages, such as the potential for energy recuperation and the generation of green energy from renewable sources like hydroelectric power. AutoForst’s methodology focuses on overcoming the key scientific challenges related to implementing automation in the round timber value chain. This interdisciplinary approach includes advancements in image recognition algorithms, AI-based analysis, automotive and sensing technologies, navigation strategies, control algorithms for several systems, like drones, cranes and trucks, telemonitoring, fleet management, digitalization and sustainability efforts, all aimed at shaping the forestry of the future. Beyond the scientific and technological challenges, forestry environments present unique difficulties, such as changing climate and weather conditions, remote or hard-to-reach areas, and external factors like wind. These factors add complexity to the application of the researched and developed approaches of AutoForst, making it a distinctive and exceptional project that combines interdisciplinary in a truly unique way. AutoForst will integrate the results of scientific investigations, in collaboration with key industry players from leading Austrian companies, into functional prototypes that reflect the interdisciplinary approach. These prototypes will be validated in real-world forestry environments, demonstrating the feasibility of the technology and serving as a foundation for future advancements. Additionally, they will act as a platform for pursuing the certification of fully automated systems.

The mobility transition requires measures for sustainable and efficient commercial transportation. Innovative governance processes are crucial in order to overcome the associated challenges of commercial transportation in the context of the mobility transition. Ideally, the administration should have innovative processes and methods at hand to operationalize the goals in order to be able to face the increasing complexity of urban logistics and the requirements of climate protection and sustainability. Through new forms of collective and cooperative action, cities can better coordinate the multitude of stakeholders and their respective activities and create opportunities for participatory design. The project objective is to establish innovative and consolidated governance processes and methods for collective action and effective monitoring of innovations in close cooperation with practitioners, thereby supporting the target systems of the Vienna Climate Roadmap and the VIENNA 2030 strategy.

The cooperation project GAME contributes to the core ambition of the EPICUR alliance through the development of transforming research, collaborative knowledge exchange, and educational and transfer practices to train students and stakeholders helping to overcome the dramatic challenges along forest value chains. Our research approach integrates agent-based simulation models to bridge ecology, forestry, and supply chain management research. We aim to avoid process breaks, which enables the closing of critical research gaps within interdisciplinary projects and joint publications to boost innovations beyond borders. Our educational and knowledge transfer approach is based on our shared set of European values, aiming to deepen and widen the European learning experience. We aim to organize workshops and an online international wood supply chain competition, which empower the digital transformation through our serious game-based learning approaches. Furthermore, we discover and discuss the different governance structures of our research institutions and collect mobility experience through the planned research and teaching stays within our project. We stimulate synergies in agent-based modeling as well as in teaching methods for university courses on forest logistics. This enables the development of a strong fundament for promising joint research projects such as the Future Forests Cluster of Excellence application at the German Research Foundation. Consequently, the EPICUR seed funding supports our ambitions to intensify the joint cooperation ambitions of the BOKU University, University of Freiburg, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.