Single item identification for forest production, protection and management

Project Information

SINTETIC

Grant agreement ID: 101082051

DOI

10.3030/101082051

EC signature date 27 April 2023

Start date 1 June 2023

End date 30 November 2027

Funded under

• Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

Total cost

€ 8 634 188,50

EU contribution

€ 7 547 650,00

Coordinated by

CONSORCI CENTRE DE CIENCIA I TECNOLOGIA FORESTAL DE CATALUNYA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SINTETIC (Single item identification for forest production, protection and management)

Reporting period: 2023-06-01 to 2024-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The ambition of SINTETIC is to define, prototype, and demonstrate a complete solution for a digital platform dedicated to comprehensive forest value chain data management. The platform consists of multiple data providers representing all actors and components of the value chain. Several hardware and software prototypes, optimized solutions for data transmission protocols, a centralized cloud Geodatabase, and a variety of services designed to explore collected datasets will prove the concept and allow further upscaling of the platform.
The core of the proposed system is a groundbreaking solution for the complete traceability of forest products based on several state-of-the-art technologies that are all integrated here for the first time allowing to track and trace items from the standing tree to the finished industrial timber product (e.g. boards).
The feasibility of the SINTETIC platform will be demonstrated through campaigns in eight sites, representing diverse technological advancement scenarios typical for European forests.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The work in First Reporting Period focused on WP1, 2 and 3, as planned.
WP1 was dedicated to better understand the user requirements, the data formats, standards and interconnection as well as to plan the architecture of the Geodatabase (i.e. the server based platform due to gather, store, elaborate and distribute all digital data generated by the devices and services developed by the project).
All of the activites had been carried out as planned and are detailed in the documents (deliverables) handed out so far.
WP2 is dedicated to the development of prototypes for trees and timber marking, optimize value recovery of trees to be processed (bucking instructions), track and trace timber products with link to quality parameters detected directly during processing and create an additional traceability system within the sawmill integrated with the one active in the forest-to-millgate.
The manual system based on dedicated RFID tags for marking trees and logs, a smartphone APP for forest inventory and log measurement and interfaced with a timber quality sensor has been developed and successfully tested in operative scenario (forest harvesting operations). The ID identification system based on RFID has been developed and tested in the sawmill as final step of the tracking system. Measured data has been transmitted to an intermediate cloud storage for demonstration purposes since the Geodatabase is due to be finalized at the beginning of the second reporting period. The prime mover of the mechanized system (harvester prototype) has been purchased and partially adapted to host the components of the new prototype. Several sensors and solutions had been validated, but not integrated due to the delay in finalizing the core system (marking system with punching technology and the main bucking computer). The sawmill traceability system reached a satisfactory development level, but its delivery will happen during the second reporting period according to GA.
WP3 developed the Geodatabase functionality, whose architecture had been furthe defined as well as the database structure. The activation of the Geodatabase is due at the beginning of the second reporting period.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

According to plan, within the first reporting period the main expected results beyond the state of the art were the whole 1) manual and 2) mechanized marking and quality assessing systems.
At the moment, just the first system had been finalized. It provides a large set of services that integrate the potential of traceability, tracking, early detection of relevant data (e.g. quality, quantity) and integration of all information in the frame of simple digital tools and friendly interfaces.
In the second reporting period this system will be extensively demonstrated both to gather technical feedback for further improvements and to promote its adoption by forest operators and companies.

Interconnection potential of track and trace service with quality data