Artificial Intelligence Article Summary #2
According to the article "How Artificial Intelligence, Robots Enhance Forest Sustainability in Finland", McQueen (2019) states that the Finnish Forest Centre is in charge of overseeing the conservation of Finland's forests and hence came up with an ambitious solution to use robots to autonomously execute most of the forest conservation tasks.
McQueen mentions that the data used has to be precise and attainable before the Finnish Forest Centre can train the robots. They use aerial and lidar imagery to construct forest inventories, record tree measurements, and species information. The data the robots need is then placed in a geographic information system (GIS).
The development director of the Finnish Forest Centre, Hamalainen, and his team see robots bringing benefits. People owning more than 65% of Finland’s forests can have simpler and more proactive management of their forests.
To produce precise data and decrease the amount of work in the field, McQueen reports that the Finnish Forest Centre is using AI. By combining the data from GIS, imagery sources, climate and weather datasets, precise measurements of the forest can be obtained, and forest inventory predictions can be improved. It can also detect signs of spruce bark beetle attacks as well as provide relevant information on the volume and species of wood.
The machine testing algorithms are being tested to obtain the same measurements as those measured by inspection crews in-person. Through AI, Hamalainen states that “we want the data to be so accurate that users can see and sell without having to go to the forest”. Currently, 85% of the cases have reliable data, while the remaining 15% is being improved.
The sustainability of the forests in Finland will be greatly improved through this implementation of artificial intelligence and robots, as it helps companies and landowners increase the efficiency and productivity of forest management.
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