Forestry Workers Research Articles

Immersive virtual reality in forestry work – implementation for chainsaw training

ABSTRACT Growing interest in virtual reality (VR) and its technical development has resulted in several applications for training and teaching purposes. This paper studied an immersive VR platform, hereafter referred to as IVR, developed for training in motor-manual tree delimbing as a learning tool, which is one of the first in forestry work training. The tested platform was the Husqvarna Limberjack, available for free download and publicly accessible. The platform uses an immersive VR to teach users how to delimb stems with a chainsaw. The study included four groups with different previous experience of using immersive VR as the first factor and a chainsaw as the second factor. The experiment included records of the time required to complete the tasks. That data was used in a procedural study in which the average and best times of the groups were utilized. Statistical analysis showed differences between the groups with and without experience in both factors. The learning curves showed a 12.4 to 26.7% improvement for all four groups. The IVR platform turned out to be a useful training aid, where skills can be gained before going to practice in field.

Clinical and pathological features of cerebrospinal meningitis caused by Pantoea agglomerans : a case report

BackgroundPantoea agglomerans (P. agglomerans) is a gram-negative bacterium that is commonly isolated from plant surfaces, seeds, and the environment. As an opportunistic pathogen, it can cause blood, urinary and soft tissue infections in immunocompromised patients. In central nervous system, P. agglomerans infection has been report in children and immune-compromised patients, however, infection by such bacterium in nontraumatized immune competent adults has not been reported. Here, we report a case of P. agglomerans cerebrospinal meningitis accompanied by positive anti-myeloperoxidase (MPO) antibody in a 49-year-old female who has a history of black fungus planting.Case presentationThe patient manifested with repeated fever, headache, generalized muscle pain, and neurological defects. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tests revealed a moderately elevated number of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (50–193 × 106/L), low glucose levels (0.54–2.44 mmo1/L), and extremely high protein content (2.42–25.42 g/L). Blood tests showed positive anti-myeloperoxidase antibodies lasting for 1.5 year before turning negative. Spine MRI showed thickening and enhancement of the whole spinal meninges. CSF metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) revealed 75,189 specific DNA reads of P. agglomerans. The patient underwent spinal laminectomy due to meningeal adhesions. Pathological results revealed fibrous tissue proliferation, inflammatory infiltration with focal necrosis and calcification in the dura mater. The patient was successfully treated with sufficient antibiotics at 1-year follow-up.ConclusionsPeople should be alert to CNS infections caused by P. agglomerans which presented with relatively mild clinical symptoms at onset, especially for those who contucts relevant agricultural and forestry work. The CSF characterization of P. agglomerans meningitis is elevated multiple nuclei white blood cells, significantly reduced glucose content, and markedly increased protein level which may be related to the secondary spinal membrane adhesions.

Analysis of forest fire dangers of the Bryansk region in the zones of radioactive contamination and beyond

The purpose of the study is to analyze the forest fire dangers of the Bryansk region forests, taking into account their radioactive contamination and potential risks for forestry workers involved in forest fires extinguishing. Significant areas of radioactive contamination of forests with a predominance of sites belonging to the classes of high and very high natural fire danger, restrictions on economic activity and a long fire-hazardous period contribute to the occurrence of radioactive forest fires. The analysis of the combined data on forest fires and radioactive contamination of forest areas showed that most forest fires occur outside the zones of radioactive contamination and are not radioactive. The largest number of fires occurs at the beginning of the fire season. Radioactive forest fires in most cases arise from the burning of dry grassy vegetation, as a result of the transition from lands of other categories and through the fault of the population. The average effective dose of additional radiation per a workday can be estimated at 1.96 μSv, and the maximum at ~ 15.4 μSv. Most fires are extinguished in the early stages and do not have time to cover large areas. It indicates the effective work of the forest fire service

Lyme neuroborreliosis in adults - epidemiology data and clinical findings

<p><strong>Introduction. </strong>Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB) can manifest during the early and late stages of Lyme disease (LD). The aim of this study is to determine epidemiology and clinical findings in patients with LNB. <br /><strong>Methods.</strong> The research was conducted in Banja Luka at the University Clinical Center of Republic of Srpska (UCC RS) during a four-year period from 10/2017 to 10/2021. The research included 51 patients admitted to the hospital with some neurological symptoms that could lead to the LNB diagnosis. Patients had lumbar puncture with cytochemical analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), ELISA anti-Borrelia IgM/IgG in serum and CSF, Immunoblot anti-Borrelia IgM/IgG in serum, and other documentation about epidemiology and clinical findings in LNB.  <br /><strong>Results.</strong> A statistically significant (p=0.017) higher proportion of female patients was observed. Most patients were between 50 and 60 years old. Most of them were retirees (31.37%), farmers, medical technicians followed with forestry workers, students etc. Most of examinees did not have information on previous tick bite (64.71%). The largest number (72.55%) did not have data on previous skin changes. The largest number of neurological symptoms at admission related to the feeling of tingling and weakness in the extremities, headache, dizziness and some ophthalmological symptoms. Patients also suffered from consciousness and speech disorder, anxiety, paresis n.VII. The largest number of examinees had some neurological symptoms up to three months prior the admission to the hospital.  <br /><strong>Conclusion. </strong>Symptoms of LNB can be quite non-specific or possibly even mimic other neurological diseases. Involvement <br />of peripheral nervous system is dominant in adult patients. It is necessary to work on early diagnosis of LD and it is mandatory to report it to the national epidemiological service. </p>

Not bitten by Ixodes ticks or bitten without symptoms, why still to worry?

The purpose of the current study was to analyse the risks of Lyme borreliosis (LB) among 1,070 forestry workers, the influence of responsible behaviour (use of repellents, skin self-inspection) on Borrelia screening result status, and the occurrence of immediate and mid-term symptoms after tick bites and LB positive serological screening test. The questionnaire was conducted as well as blood tests for LB disease by one-stage serological screening procedure using ELISA for specific B. burgdorferi IgM and IgG antibodies (EuroImmun AG company, Germany). While 39.6% of foresters were LB positive among bitten foresters, as many as 27.0% were LB positive among those, who did not recall any tick attacks at all. Individuals with known history of tick bites had significantly higher odds (1.770×) of being LB positive (p < 0.05), while the use of repellents or skin self-inspection after visiting woods had no influence on LB results. The odds of skin discolouration after tick bites was significantly lower (0.682×) in case of LB positive test compared to LB negative test (p < 0.05), which can be explained by the fact that foresters could be unaware about erythema migrans appearance and timing, considering tick bite and developed later rash as completely separate events. Moreover, 69.1% of the bitten foresters with LB positive result developed no secondary symptoms (excluding those related to the skin), and the most frequent clinical symptoms were arthralgia (24.9%), followed by myalgia (7.6%), headache (5.7%), and damage to facial nerve (2.7%), which are non-specific and can be present in other illnesses. Therefore, the recommendations proposed would be the regular laboratory testing for LB of sensitive and at-risk population, who visits endemic woody areas, irrespective of all other factors involved.

Relationship Between Agriculture and Forestry Workers, Authentic Leadership, and Organizational Commitment

This study examines the relationships between authentic leadership perceptions and organizational commitment levels of public personnel working in the agriculture and forestry sector. Within the scope of this research, surveys consisting of ready-made scales were used. The authentic leadership scale is a scale consisting of four dimensions and 16 items. The answers given to the surveys were interpreted using the SPSS package program. When the results of the research are evaluated in general; It appears that the perception of authentic leadership has a significant effect on organizational commitment. Looking at the demographic results; According to gender, it has been determined that men have more authentic leadership perceptions than women. According to education level; It appears that authentic leadership perception and organizational commitment do not differ. When examining whether employees’ authentic leadership perceptions and organizational commitments vary according to their age; It is seen that the perception of authentic leadership and organizational commitment differ according to age. While employees between the ages of 36 and 40 have higher perceptions of authentic leadership; Organizational commitment of those between the ages of 41 and 45 was higher.

Fatal occupational injuries in fishing, farming and forestry 2010-2015.

Every year, 2.3 million people worldwide succumb to work-related accidents and illnesses. The primary industries have long been acknowledged with elevated accident risks. Recent levels and trends of injury and associated fatalities in these sectors are uncertain. An enhanced understanding of these risks in these industries is required for effective injury prevention in the future. This study aimed to describe registered fatalities in the primary industries worldwide, exploring potential disparities between countries and identifying trends in injury rates. Data were obtained on fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 workers in farming, fishing and forestry for the years 2010-2015 from the International Labour Organization ILO-STAT database. Descriptive statistics and mixed-model regression analyses were conducted. Fatal occupational injuries in upper- and middle-income countries were compared. The study incorporated data from 32 countries: 21 from Europe. America had the highest mean occupational fatality injury rate (76.9). The highest recorded rates for individual countries occurred in Colombia in 2014 (265.2) and Lithuania in 2015 (75.0), and the lowest in Greece in 2012 (0.2). Significant variation in injury rates was evident among the countries. There was no trend in the incidence of fatal injuries from 2010 to 2015, neither for all countries, nor Europe. Middle-income countries had higher occupational fatality injury rate than upper-income countries. The occupational fatality injury rate exhibited considerable variation, ranging from 0.9 to 265.2, and the injury rate was lowest in upper-income countries. There was no trend in the figures 2010-2015.

Risk of Ixodes ricinus Bites in a Population of Forestry Workers in an Endemic Region in France.

The progressing worldwide increases in tick occurrence and tick-borne diseases calls for the development of new prevention strategies to reduce their impact on human and animal health. Defining the risk of exposure to tick bites is therefore essential. Forestry workers are at high risk of tick bites. We set up an explorative study among forestry workers in the Alsace region in eastern France to measure the different factors affecting the risk of Ixodes ricinus tick bites during their activities in forests. For one year, forestry workers recorded the presence of ticks on their clothes and tick bites every time they were working in teams in different forest ecosystems. Questions about the prevention measures they followed were also noted. Among the 32 participants, we were able to differentiate between groups having a high, neutral, or low risk of being bitten. The median tick bite number per year was 4 (0-8). We tried to identify individual as well as environmental factors affecting the risk of tick bites. Factors influencing the risk were the seasonal peak of tick activity in May and June, the time of exposure, and the forest ecosystems visited during the year. Additional factors potentially affecting the risk were also identified.

Occupational Injuries of Spanish Wildland Firefighters: A Descriptive Analysis.

The work of wildland firefighters, especially of the so-called 'Brigadas de Refuerzo contra Incendios Forestales', is characterised by high physical demands and extreme operating conditions. These professionals face long workdays (12 h), walking with heavy loads (~25 kg), being exposed to high temperatures (>30 °C), and handling specialised tools in high-risk environments. This study aimed to describe the prevalence of occupational injuries among members of the 'Brigadas de Refuerzo contra Incendios Forestales' and its relationship to variables such as age and work experience. A total of 217 wildland firefighters (18 female and 199 male) correctly answered a questionnaire developed on an ad hoc basis to meet the study's objectives. A high prevalence of occupational injuries was observed among them (~76%). Age and work experience were shown to be significantly associated with injuries. Individuals over 35 years of age with more than 10 years' experience had a higher probability of injury (OR = 2.14, CI = 1.12-4.06 and OR = 2.46, CI = 1.30-4.67, respectively). Injuries occurred mainly during physical training (~46%), followed by preventive work (~33%) and forest fires (~20%). The most common injuries were tendonitis and muscle pain (~44% and ~21% respectively), followed by sprains (~21%). The results underline the need for physical activity programmes adapted to help wildland firefighters, especially older and more experienced individuals. The identification of risk factors such as age and work experience can contribute to the prevention and management of occupational injuries among this group of highly specialised forestry workers. Specific preventative measures during training are required to mitigate the risk of injury among these crews, who play a crucial role in protecting the environment and public safety.

Evaluation of readiness of the technical system using the semi-Markov model with selected sojourn time distributions

Mechanization of forestry work is crucial in forest management, and the specific nature of the tasks performed requires reliable machines with a high level of technical readiness. Therefore, models describing the exploitation process of multi-operational machines used to obtain wood raw materials, and especially assessing the level of their technical readiness, are extremely important. For multi-tasking objects performing random activities in given time intervals, calculating readiness measures is a complex issue. Forecasting subsequent operational states and their durations allows to predict the behavior of technical objects and schedule work. In addition to identifying the sequence of states, it is also important to identify the sojourn time in these states. This article presents a method for identifying the semi-Markov process and then assessing the technical readiness of a Harvester machine. This allowed for conclusions regarding the timely completion of assigned tasks, and also made it possible to adjust the activities carried out to the requirements of forest management.

Application of remote sensing to understand the role of Galician feral horses in the biomass reduction of a shrub-grassland-dominated landscape

Galician forests in northwestern Spain are subject to frequent wildfires with high environmental and economic costs. In addition, due to the consequences of climate change, these fires are becoming more virulent, occurring throughout the year, and taking place in populated areas, in some cases involving the loss of human life. Therefore, forest fire prevention is even more relevant than mitigating its consequences. Given the costs involved in forestry work, alternative measures to reduce fuel load and create vegetation gaps are needed. One involves grazing by an endemic species of feral horses (Equus ferus atlanticus) that feed on thicket-forming gorse (Ulex europaeus). In a 100-ha forest fenced study area stocked with 11 horses, four 50 m2 enclosed plots prevented the access of these wild animals to the vegetation, with the aim of manipulating their impact on the reduction of forest biomass. The measurement of biomass volumes is an important method that can describe the assessment of wildfire risks, unfortunately, high-resolution data collection at the regional scale is very time-consuming. The best result can be using drones (unmanned aerial vehicles - UAVs) as a method of collecting remotely sensed data at low cost. From September 2018 to November 2020, we collected information about aboveground biomass from these four enclosed plots and their surrounding areas available for horses to forage, via UAV. These data, together with environmental variables from the study site, were used as input for a fire model to assess the differences in the surface rate of spread (SROS) among grazed and ungrazed areas. Our results indicated a consistent but small reduction in the SROS between 0.55 and 3.10 m/min in the ungrazed enclosured plots in comparison to their grazed surrounding areas (which have an SROS between 15 and 25 m/min). The research showed that radar remote sensing (UAV) can be used to map forest aboveground biomass, and emphasized the importance and role of feral horses in Galicia as a prevention tool against wildfires in gorse-dominated landscapes.

Forestry Extension Performance in Enhancing Forest Farmer Knowledge and Skills: A Case Study in Tompobulu, Maros Regency

Forestry Extension Workers, as one of the important parties in maintaining and preserving forest resources in Indonesia, are expected to have an understanding of good extension methods and techniques so that farmers around the forest can improve their knowledge and skills in managing and utilising forest products. This study aimed to assess the performance of forestry extension workers in Tompobulu District. And also evaluate their role in enhancing the knowledge and skills of forest farmer groups in Maros Regency. It was located in six villages, namely Bonto Somba Village, Bonto Manurung, Bonto Matinggi, Bonto Manai, Tompubulu, and Pucak Maros Regency with the number of samples in the study was 57. The study employed qualitative descriptive analysis using a Likert scale, and quantitative analysis using the t-test. The performance of forestry extension workers that significantly influences increasing the knowledge and skills of forest farmer groups consists of six indicator components, namely: facilitating forest farmer groups to prepare forest product utilisation maps; facilitating forest farmer groups to prepare annual work programs and plans; facilitating forest farmer group members to improve human resource quality; facilitating forest farmer groups to disseminate or spread information on forest product technology; facilitating forest farmer groups to grow their empowerment and independence; and facilitating forest farmer groups to increase production results of superior forest product commodities. Meanwhile, the performance of forestry extension workers that does not significantly influence increasing the knowledge and skills of forest farmer groups is Facilitating Business Partnerships Between Forest Farmer Groups, Entrepreneurs, and the Government, Facilitating Forest Farmer Groups to Access Business Capital with Financial Institutions, Banks, and the Government; and Facilitating Increasing the Income and Welfare of Forest Farmer Groups.

Anti-Leptospira Seroprevalence and Associated Risk Factors among Forestry Workers in Lower Saxony, North-West Germany.

As leptospirosis is re-emerging, a seroprevalence study was conducted, assessing the prevalence of anti-Leptospira IgG antibodies and infection-associated risk factors among forestry workers (FWs) in Lower Saxony, Germany, to develop targeted public health measures. Sera of 877 FWs, sampled in 2016, were tested for anti-Leptospira seropositivity by commercial IgG-ELISA. Data on demographics and Leptospira-specific exposures, knowledge, sources of information, and preventive measures were collected by standardized, self-administered questionnaire. A subset of 244 sera was retested via in-house IgG-ELISA. Risk factors were assessed from the subset using multivariable logistic regression analysis. The commercial IgG-ELISA revealed a seroprevalence of 4.8% (95% confidence interval CI95 = 3.5-6.4). Of the 601 FWs who completed the questionnaire, 67.9% had been informed about leptospirosis and Leptospira spp., mainly by employers (55.2%) and peers (38.9%). Positive associations with seropositivity were observed for canoeing (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 2.35, p = 0.044), touching rodents (aOR = 2.4, p = 0.021), and living close to beech trees (aOR = 2.18, p = 0.075). Frequently cleaning animal stables was negatively associated (aOR = 0.20, p = 0.002). The unexpected positive association with wearing gloves when handling plants and soil (aOR = 2.16, p = 0.011) needs further discussion. Overall, seroprevalence was in the range of other studies in Germany. The identified factors will be used to develop targeted information reaching out to at-risk groups tapping various communication channels.

A Lightweight Pine Wilt Disease Detection Method Based on Vision Transformer-Enhanced YOLO

Pine wilt disease (PWD) is a forest disease characterized by rapid spread and extremely high lethality, posing a serious threat to the ecological security of China’s forests and causing significant economic losses in forestry. Given the extensive forestry area, limited personnel for inspection and monitoring, and high costs, utilizing UAV-based remote sensing monitoring for diseased trees represents an effective approach for controlling the spread of PWD. However, due to the small target size and uneven scale of pine wilt disease, as well as the limitations of real-time detection by drones, traditional disease tree detection algorithms based on RGB remote sensing images do not achieve an optimal balance among accuracy, detection speed, and model complexity due to real-time detection limitations. Consequently, this paper proposes Light-ViTeYOLO, a lightweight pine wilt disease detection method based on Vision Transformer-enhanced YOLO (You Only Look Once). A novel lightweight multi-scale attention module is introduced to construct an EfficientViT feature extraction network for global receptive field and multi-scale learning. A novel neck network, CACSNet(Content-Aware Cross-Scale bidirectional fusion neck network), is designed to enhance the detection of diseased trees at single granularity, and the loss function is optimized to improve localization accuracy. The algorithm effectively reduces the number of parameters and giga floating-point operations per second (GFLOPs) of the detection model while enhancing overall detection performance. Experimental results demonstrate that compared with other baseline algorithms, Light-ViTeYOLO proposed in this paper has the least parameter and computational complexity among related algorithms, with 3.89 MFLOPs and 7.4 GFLOPs, respectively. The FPS rate is 57.9 (frames/s), which is better than the original YOLOv5. Meanwhile, its mAP@0.5:0.95 is the best among the baseline algorithms, and the recall and mAP@0.5 slightly decrease. Our Light-ViTeYOLO is the first lightweight method specifically designed for detecting pine wilt disease. It not only meets the requirements for real-time detection of pine wilt disease outbreaks but also provides strong technical support for automated forestry work.

Explainable Artificial Intelligence to Support Work Safety in Forestry: Insights from Two Large Datasets, Open Challenges, and Future Work

Forestry work, which is considered one of the most demanding and dangerous professions in the world, is claiming more and more lives. In a country as small as Austria, more than 50 forestry workers are killed in accidents every year, and the number is increasing rapidly. This serves as a catalyst for us to implement more stringent measures for workplace safety in order to achieve the sustainability objective of SDG 3, which focuses on health and well-being. This study contributes to the analysis of occupational accidents and focuses on two large real-world datasets from both the Austrian Federal Forests (ÖBf) and the Austrian Workers’ Compensation Board (AUVA). Decision trees, random forests, and fully connected neural networks are used for the analysis. By exploring different interpretation methods, this study sheds light on the decision-making processes ranging from basic association to causal inference and emphasizes the importance of causal inference in providing actionable insights for accident prevention. This paper contributes to the topic of explainable AI, specifically in its application to occupational safety in forestry. As a result, it introduces novel aspects to decision support systems in this application domain.

Occupation and tongue cancer in Nordic countries.

Almost 200,000 tongue cancers were diagnosed worldwide in 2020. The aim of this study was to describe occupational risk variation in this malignancy. The data are based on the Nordic Occupational Cancer (NOCCA) study containing 14.9million people from the Nordic countries with 9020 tongue cancers diagnosed during 1961-2005. The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) of tongue cancer in each occupational category was calculated using national incidence rates as the reference. Among men, the incidence was statistically significantly elevated in waiters (SIR 4.36, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.13--5.92), beverage workers (SIR 3.42, 95% CI 2.02-5.40), cooks and stewards (SIR 2.55, 95% CI 1.82-3.48), seamen (SIR 1.66, 95% CI 1.36-2.00), journalists (SIR 1.85, 95% CI 1.18-2.75), artistic workers (SIR 2.05, 95% CI 1.54-2.66), hairdressers (SIR 2.17, 95% CI 1.39-3.22), and economically inactive persons (SIR 1.57, 95% CI 1.42-1.73). Among women, the SIR was statistically significantly elevated only in waitresses (SIR 1.39, 95% CI 1.05-1.81). Statistically significant SIRs ≤ 0.63 were observed in male farmers, gardeners, forestry workers and teachers, and in female launderers. These findings may be related to consumption of alcohol and tobacco, but the effect of carcinogenic exposure from work cannot be excluded.

Determining occupational exposure to inhalable wood dust in motor manual felling and processing

ABSTRACT The occupational exposure to softwood and hardwood wood dust was determined during forestry work in timber stands. In the determination of inhalable wood dust, three tree species (Fagus sylvatica, Quercus sp. and Pinus brutia) and three chainsaw operating parameters were taken into account (in total six assessment indicators). The first operating parameter was the chainsaw operating under normal conditions (regular chain sharpening). The second and third operating parameters were improper chainsaw maintenance (irregular chain sharpening) and low throttling pressing (operating the chainsaw at low engine speeds), respectively. The determination of inhalable wood dust concentrations from the ambient air was performed using the Inhalable Organic Matter (IOM) sampler, manufactured by SKC Button Sampler (Dorset, United Kingdom). Out of a total of 108 concentration cases of inhalable wood dust, 44 (40.74%) showed concentrations greater than 3.00 mg·m−3, while in 10 (9.26%) cases, the dust concentration exceeded 5 mg·m−3. The eight-hour time-weighted average exposure to wood dust ranged from 0.99 mg·m−3 to 12.52 mg·m−3, with an average of 4.22 mg·m−3. The results indicated that the increase in wood dust concentration was dependent on improper chainsaw maintenance, while low throttling pressing reduces dust concentration levels. Additionally, an increase in wood dust concentration was observed in species with thick bark (Pinus brutia and Quercus petraea).

Characterization of Swedish Forestry Contractors’ Practices Regarding Occupational Safety and Health Management

Forestry has many dangers, and much effort has been put into supporting accident prevention by developing legislation and certification systems. In Sweden, forestry contractors have an important role in developing and maintaining a good working environment for the employed forestry workers. The objectives of this study were to describe forestry contractors’ current practices regarding occupational safety and health (OSH) management and identify variations in relation to the contractors’ characteristics and finances, as well as to highlight areas that need improvement. In 2023, data were collected through a survey distributed to 1200 limited liability companies registered to perform logging or silvicultural services, with a response rate of 22%. Multi- and univariate analyses were performed to compare contractor groups, and the results show that larger companies had more well-developed and formalized routines and guidelines for their operations. Geographical differences were also identified; for example, employees in the north were more likely to have access to staff facilities when working in the forest. However, no clear connection between OSH management practices and the contractors’ finances could be demonstrated. The study concludes that there is a need for improvements in OSH work within the industry because many companies do not meet all of the formal requirements that exist today.

Robots for Forest Maintenance

Forest fires are becoming increasingly common, and they are devastating, fueled by the effects of global warming, such as a dryer climate, dryer vegetation, and higher temperatures. Vegetation management through selective removal is a preventive measure which creates discontinuities that will facilitate fire containment and reduce its intensity and rate of spread. However, such a method requires vast amounts of biomass fuels to be removed, over large areas, which can only be achieved through mechanized means, such as through using forestry mulching machines. This dangerous job is also highly dependent on skilled workers, making it an ideal case for novel autonomous robotic systems. This article presents the development of a universal perception, control, and navigation system for forestry machines. The selection of hardware (sensors and controllers) and data-integration and -navigation algorithms are central components of this integrated system development. Sensor fusion methods, operating using ROS, allow the distributed interconnection of all sensors and actuators. The results highlight the system’s robustness when applied to the mulching machine, ensuring navigational and operational accuracy in forestry operations. This novel technological solution enhances the efficiency of forest maintenance while reducing the risk exposure to forestry workers.

A Simulation Study of Noise Exposure in Sledge-Based Cable Yarding Operations

Ensuring the safety of forestry workers is a key challenge, particularly when working with partly mechanized harvesting systems. Cable yarding is typically used in steep terrain timber harvesting. For long-distance extraction, one of the few alternatives is to use sledge yarders, but these machines may expose workers to high doses of noise. The goal of this study was to model haulers’ exposure to noise in sledge-based cable yarding operations, based on a simulation approach that considered variable factors such as the yarding distance, lateral yarding distance, and average skyline height. Taken into consideration were 165 scenarios developed by examining the variation in yarding distance (500 to 1500 m, with a step of 100 m), lateral yarding distance (10 to 50 m, with a step of 10 m), and average skyline height above the ground (10, 15, and 20 m). The simulations assumed an 8-h working day with a break of 1 h. The models and statistics published by other studies were used to calculate the time consumption and number of work cycles completed within a working day. These data were used to compute the equivalent exposure to noise (LAeq) for each scenario, as well as for those work elements that were likely to expose the haulers to noise the most. The presented findings indicated that (i) the exposure to noise was higher than 100 dB(A), irrespective of variation in the considered factors; (ii) the trend in exposure was characterized by polynomials in relation to the extraction distance, and the magnitude of exposure was consistently affected by variation in the considered factors; and (iii) without hearing protection, the empty and loaded turns exposed workers to noise over the permissible limits. These findings strongly suggest the use of hearing protection when working in close proximity to sledge-based cable yarding operations. The methods proposed in this study in the form of simulation may help benchmark other forest operations.