Timber is a valuable natural resource, which is why Fraunhofer IPM and its partners are developing a mark-free procedure for identifying logs and trunk sections. The aim of the DiGeBaSt project is to be able to trace individual logs from when they are felled in the forest to when they are scanned in the sawmill. Unique structures on sawn surfaces are used to identify each log. Sources: Timberbiz, PhysOrg
Who does a log belong to? How was it felled? How long has it been stored? How was it transported? All of these questions are key in enabling the modern timber industry to trade in a transparent and sustainable way. Only unbroken, fraud-proof tracking can provide clear-cut answers, but the marks and numbering tags typically used today do not adequately provide these.
As part of the DiGeBaSt project (Digitalisierung Gefällter BaumStämme – Digitalization of Felled Logs), Fraunhofer IPM and its partners are developing a mark-free identification procedure for tracking individual logs and trunk sections.
The aim is to enable forestry companies and forest owners to manage forests more efficiently and more sustainably. The procedure uses the unique structures on sawn surfaces as a fingerprint, meaning that no timber marking whatsoever is required.
Camera images of cut areas are reduced to a simple bit sequence for the identification process; tracking can thus later be achieved by comparing new images of the same area with the corresponding bit sequence.
High-resolution camera images of the cut surfaces are translated into a simple bit sequence, the fingerprint code. This code is matched with a unique ID and stored in a Cloud database. Tracking can be achieved by comparing new images of the same area with the corresponding bit sequence. This allows the tamper-proof identification of individual logs and trunk sections, even if the timber is mixed up during harvest and processing.
Three different camera systems have been developed for wood processing applications, each to suit specific lighting conditions: a system that is integrated in a forest harvester, a system for use in a sawmill and a hand-held system.
In a field study, the researchers could show that the fingerprint method is reliable, even in the rough environmental conditions in the forest and the sawmill. A total of 65 cut surfaces were recorded on the forest harvester, at the timber collection point and at the sawmill. The registered sections were then identified at the collection point and at the sawmill by new images being taken at each location respectively.
The recognition rate between the forest harvester and the timber collection point was 98.5%, in other words the system failed to recognize only a single log. Between the forest harvester and the sawmill, and between the timber collection point and the sawmill, the recognition rate was 100%. In the future, the researchers will be working on making the method suitable for other types of wood and for applications along the entire timber processing chain.
The ID data is processed and accessed in a cloud. This enables logs to be matched to individual forest owners in a fraud-proof manner – irrespective of mixing during the felling process.
This, in turn, makes payments for the harvested timber both fair and transparent, even in collective marketing scenarios. By linking ID data to geographical data and other information added along the entire process chain from forest to mill, an underlying set of base data is created that enables both economic and environmental control within the forestry industry.
