Taimien koneellisen istutuksen kehittäminen (TAIMISTU)

Julkinen hankekuvaus

Project summary

In Finland, forest regeneration is largely based on manual planting, and a key future challenge is the shortage of labor in the forestry sector. Mechanized planting offers a means to ensure the continuity and quality of planting operations; however, current excavator-based solutions are poorly suited to soft ground. The objective of the TAIMISTU project is to address this identified need by developing a lightweight, cost-effective, and automation-enabled planting machine suitable for planting on soft terrain. HAMK, HAMI, and LUKE will assess the productivity of manual planting on soft terrain and evaluate the conditions under which a mechanized solution provides the greatest benefit. The project will review existing planting machine technologies, UGV and ATV platforms, as well as robotic and automation technologies, and assess their suitability for challenging ground conditions. Based on these assessments, the requirements for a novel lightweight planting machine will be defined, a modular structure will be designed, and a prototype will be built. The prototype will be tested in real operational environments, and its performance will be evaluated in comparison with traditional manual planting. The long-term goal of the project is to create the prerequisites for the commercialization and deployment of a lightweight planting machine, particularly to meet the needs of SME forestry service companies, thereby supporting the automation of sustainable forestry.