Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5552/crojfe.2023.2248
A Prototype for Automated Delimitation of Work Cycles from Machine Sensor Data in Cable Yarding Operations
Thomas Varch
orcid.org/0000-0002-9090-7268
; University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna Department of Forest and Soil Sciences Institute of Forest Engineering Peter Jordan Strasse 82 1190, Vienna AUSTRIA
Dennis Malle
; University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna Department of Forest and Soil Sciences Institute of Forest Engineering Peter Jordan Strasse 82 1190, Vienna AUSTRIA
Gernot Erber
; University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna Department of Forest and Soil Sciences Institute of Forest Engineering Peter Jordan Strasse 82 1190, Vienna AUSTRIA
Christoph Gollob
; University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna Department of Forest and Soil Sciences Institute of Forest Growth Peter Jordan Strasse 82 1190, Vienna AUSTRIA
Raffaele Spinelli
; CNR-IBE Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Istituto per la BioEconomia Via Madonna del Piano 10 50019, Sesto Fiorentino (FI) ITALY
Rien Visser
; University of Canterbury School of Forestry Private Bag 4800 8140 Christchurch NEW ZEALAND
Andreas Holzinger
; University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna Department of Forest and Soil Sciences Institute of Forest Engineering Peter Jordan Strasse 82 1190, Vienna AUSTRIA
Karl Stampfer
; University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna Department of Forest and Soil Sciences Institute of Forest Engineering Peter Jordan Strasse 82 1190, Vienna AUSTRIA
Abstract
The demand for increased efficiency in timber harvesting has traditionally been met by continuous technical improvements in machines and an increase in mechanisation. The use of active and passive sensors on machines enables improvements in aspects such as operational efficiency, fuel consumption and worker safety. Timber harvesting machine manufacturers have used these technologies to improve the maintenance and control of their machines, to select and optimise harvesting techniques and fuel consumption. To a more limited extent, it has also been used to evaluate the time taken to complete tasks. The systematic use of machine sensor data, in a central database or cloud solution is a more recent trend.
Machine data is recorded over long periods of time and at high resolution. This data therefore has considerable potential for scientific investigations. For mechanised timber harvesting operations, this could include a better understanding of the interaction between productivity and operational parameters, which first of all requires an efficient determination of cycle time.
This study was the first to automatically delimitate tower yarder cycle times from machine sensor data. In addition to machine sensor data, cycle times were collected through a traditional manual time and motion study, and cycle times from both studies were compared to a reference cycle time determined from video footage of the yarder in operation.
Based on three days of detailed time study, the total cycle time in the classic manual time (–1.3%) and in the machine sensor data (–1.2%) was only slightly shorter than in the reference study, and the average cycle time did not differ significantly (classic manual time study: –0.08±0.94 min, p=0.997; machine sensor data study: –0.08±0.26 min, p=0.997). However, the accuracy of the machine sensor approach (RMSE=0.92) was more than three times higher than that of the classic manual time study (RMSE=0.27).
With the integration of sensors on forestry machines now being commonplace, this study shows that machine sensor data can be reliably interpreted for time study purposes such as machine or system optimisation. This eliminates the need for manual time study, which can be both cumbersome and dependent on the experience of the observer, and allows long term data sets to be obtained and analysed with comparatively little effort. However, a truly automated time study needs to be supplemented with automated determination of and linkage to other operational parameters, such as yarding and lateral yarding distance or load volume.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
310142
URI
Publication date:
14.7.2023.
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