The safety of the logging site is receiving significant focus by New Zealand foresters.
The forestry industry in New Zealand continues to show commitment to reduce the risk associated with their logging operations on steep slopes. The Steepland Harvesting Programme, which is a partnership between government and a consortium of forestry companies and contractors, conducted the trials. Keith Raymond is the Programme Manager from Future Forests Research, which is the company leading the Steepland Harvesting Programme. It is understood that this remote controlled tree felling is a world first. A remote control unit was integrated into a commercial logging machine, in this case a John Deere 909 feller buncher.
A harvesting contractor from Nelson, Wood Contracting Nelson Limited, and researchers from Scion, were involved in the research. The unit has now been successfully tested. This forms part of one of the aims of the programme, which is to design, build and commission a teleoperation system for machines working on steep slopes. This involves the use of remote technology and video feedback to operate forestry machines even outside of the line of site. The first three stages of the project, which was to achieve remote control of the machine functions of the feller buncher, are complete. The remote control system was designed to meet the New Zealand standard for remote-controlled mining equipment. Source: http://www.ffr.co.nz/