Enabling Digitalization in Forestry 4.0 Using ForestML 4.0-based Digital Twins

Abstract

Today’s forest-based sector stands at a pivotal stage highlighted by the keyword sustainability and is correlated deeply with climate change, food safety, biodiversity, etc. In Europe, it is distinguished by a high degree of decentralization, technological and know-how heterogeneity, and labor intensity. Faced with the increasing complexity of distinct value-added chains, one frequently referenced approach refers to transferring the concept of Industry 4.0 into forestry, yielding Forestry 4.0. In this context, Digital Twins (DTs), 1-to-1 virtual replicas of the real world, enable novel technological solutions, processes, and individual business models. Although the concept of DTs is not unfamiliar, there is still a lack of practical examples or general software frameworks to implement model-based DTs in forestry, focusing on connectivity, interoperability, and security. Therefore, this paper proposes our software framework based on a modeling language termed ForestML 4.0. In addition, we present that the developed Internet of Things infrastructure S3I can provide DTs with connectivity and security. Finally, we provide two practical examples realized in a forestry-related research project in Germany to prove the feasibility of our framework.