Speaker
Description
The study will present the implementation of a smart monitoring system based on LoRaWAN technology to support the improvement of safety and operational efficiency in cable yarding on steep slopes.
As a case study area, a typical harvesting intervention with cable yarder in the Italian prealps was chosen.
An LTE-enabled LoRaWAN gateway was mounted on the tower yarder to ensure a stable wireless communication across the harvesting site, with a theoretical data transmission capacity of the payloads up to 1km away from the gateway itself. Preliminary network coverage analyses were performed in GIS to investigate how terrain morphology interacted with the signal transmission. To this, a detailed methodology involving the use of visibility analysis tools allowed to evaluate areas potentially lacking
network coverage. The methodology was then validated on field with a two-antenna GNSS-RTK system exchanging corrections with LoRa transmission protocol.
Then, high sensitivity motion sensors (i.e., inclinometers and accelerometers) were installed on key structural components, including the carriage, tail anchor tree, and tail spar, to measure inclination and rotational movements under working conditions. Specific warning and critical thresholds were defined to detect abnormal movements and potential instability. An automated alarm system was integrated with a Telegram chatbot to provide real-time notifications to operators.
The preliminary results confirm the feasibility and robustness of the solution and open to a wider discussion on LoRaWAN technology applied to monitor and connect forest operation in real time also in complex mountain terrain. Canopy occlusion was confirmed not to be a factor correlated to the signal quality. Transmission of the payloads were possible up to 500m from the tower yarder. Further improvements as the use of a directional antenna, or changing the SDR of the radio transmission may
further extend this approach to even longer distances.
| Keywords | cable-yarder, comunication, monitoring, safety |
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