Project description DEENESFRITPL Robots and AI for forest monitoring Forests are essential for combatting climate change and maintaining our planet, with forestry operators and organisations monitoring forests, assisting their growth, limber output and maintenance. Unfortunately, monitoring large expanses of forest can be difficult and inaccurate which is dangerous for properly maintaining a forest's health. The EU-funded DIGIFOREST project introduces an innovative solution, improved forest monitoring and data management using robots and artificial intelligence. By utilising several different robots to collect 3D spatial data on forests and individual trees followed by AI documenting and AI representing it, it offers forestry operators and policymakers an unparalleled tool. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective What if we could create a revolution in spatial data acquisition, organization and analysis and give forestry operators and enterprises up-to-date, tangible information about the status of their forests down to the individual tree? We believe this would improve their oversight by allowing more accurate growth modelling of forest stands and precise predictions of timber yields. It would remove the uncertainty of when thinning operations are needed or where there are trees which are ready for harvest. It could also enable operators to automatically plan where their staff or equipment should be deployed. With capable (semi-)autonomous harvesting, operators eventually automating the full process. It could also better quantify a forest's carbon sequestration - with low uncertainty per-tree carbon estimates. Precise measures of crown volume and tree diameters would improve the granularity of carbon credit schemes. This could inform national governments and policy makers when deciding policy on initiatives such as carbon offsets and carbon farming.In DIGIFOREST we propose to create such an ecosystem by developing a team of heterogeneous robots to collect and update this raw 3D spatial representations, building large scale forest maps and feeding them to machine learning and spatial AI to semantically segment and label the trees and also the terrain. Our robot team will be diverse: we will use both rugged field robots as well as more experimental vehicles. Most ambitious of all is the intention to (semi-)automate a lightweight harvester for sustainable selective logging.Progress in this project will be demonstrated with an ambitious series of field trials. With the clear engagement of forestry and industrial companies, commercial pathways are readily available.A 1:15 video summarizing the overall project ambitions and consortium can be viewed here:https://tinyurl.com/digiforest Fields of science social sciencespolitical sciencespolitical transitionsrevolutionsnatural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystemsengineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringroboticsnatural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learningagricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesforestry Programme(s) HORIZON.2.4 - Digital, Industry and Space Main Programme HORIZON.2.4.5 - Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Topic(s) HORIZON-CL4-2021-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01-09 - AI, Data and Robotics for the Green Deal (AI, Data and Robotics Partnership) (IA) Call for proposal HORIZON-CL4-2021-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based Coordinator TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN Net EU contribution € 655 276,23 Address Arcisstrasse 21 80333 Muenchen Germany See on map Region Bayern Oberbayern München, Kreisfreie Stadt Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00 Participants (4) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU Norway Net EU contribution € 463 163,75 Address Hogskoleringen 1 7491 Trondheim See on map Region Norge Trøndelag Trøndelag Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00 RHEINISCHE FRIEDRICH-WILHELMS-UNIVERSITAT BONN Germany Net EU contribution € 507 955,00 Address Regina pacis weg 3 53113 Bonn See on map Region Nordrhein-Westfalen Köln Bonn, Kreisfreie Stadt Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00 PREFOR OY Finland Net EU contribution € 621 304,25 Address Pieni roobertinkatu 9 00130 Helsinki See on map SME The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed. Yes Region Manner-Suomi Helsinki-Uusimaa Helsinki-Uusimaa Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 266 273,25 MOOG BV Netherlands Net EU contribution € 151 375,00 Address Pesetaweg 53 2153PJ Nieuw vennep See on map Region West-Nederland Noord-Holland Groot-Amsterdam Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 64 875,00 Partners (4) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all EIDGENOESSISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE ZUERICH Switzerland Net EU contribution € 0,00 Address Raemistrasse 101 8092 Zuerich See on map Region Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera Zürich Zürich Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00 EIDGENOSSISCHE FORSCHUNGSANSTALT WSL Switzerland Net EU contribution € 0,00 Address Zuercherstrasse 111 8903 Birmensdorf See on map Region Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera Zürich Zürich Activity type Research Organisations Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00 LEICA GEOSYSTEMS AG Switzerland Net EU contribution € 0,00 Address Heinrich-wild-strasse 201 9435 Heerbrugg See on map Region Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera Ostschweiz St. Gallen Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00 THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD United Kingdom Net EU contribution € 0,00 Address Wellington square university offices OX1 2JD Oxford See on map Region South East (England) Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Oxfordshire Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00
