Harvester: a concept design for a Lorax-terrifying tree-extractor
Niko Kugler & Georg Heitzmann's concept design for "The Harvester" is a Lorax-terrifying device that can pick up felled trees in a forest and extract them without harming nearby growth.
The HARVESTER (via Dvice)
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I really think it should be named "HarvestOR", and have its' own theme song.
terrifying? try cute
Not quite the 'Crab logger' from Thunderbirds, but very nice...
If you really want to minimise harming nearby growth then heli logging seems better (at the cost of CO2, fuel, and money, of course). The site doesn't say what kind of logging this machine is designed for or how it will cause less harm -- does it have lower emissions, does it really reduce the physical impact enough to make it worthwhile over alternatives?
Having said that, it is a neat design.
at first glance, skipping the heading, I was certain it was a robotic zen garden maker.
How about this walking harvester: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2V8GFqk_Y
or this woodchopper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxM5falj_WI
I had to look up Lorax. Apparently I've forgotten much of Dr Seuss's work.
This might be a great idea - unless.
that walking harvester is way cool. Here's old tech feller buncher:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA7_rqxyDo0
Now, true story: acquaintance of mine was flying into a remote camp to do some repair work when the plane crested a ridge and went over a clearing. Down below some bored loggers were playing a little game. In the center, a feller buncher with a thirty foot tree in its grasp. Driving in circles around it, three skidders (basically tractors with heavy safety cages over them used for pulling out logs. The machine in the middle was trying to swat the skidders with the tree as they raced around him. This was over a million bucks of machines back then.Since the man in the seat next to my acquaintance was one of the logging company executives needless to say the plane flew back with four extra passengers.
Anyone have any good playing with big machines stories?
That Lorax was always a buzzkill anyway.
I say we start harvesting Loraxes asn exotic entre ingredient.
Didn't I see this in a Thunderbirds episode? Is it atomic-powered?
This reminds me more of the Sidewinder from Thunderbirds, ripped up trees with it's steely claws. Not very eco though, and a military vehicle too...
Takuan: That's not a feller buncher. This is a feller buncher. (I've no idea what that term means, BTW, but this thing seems to be doing the same sort of thing as yours, but with a bit more of a Bruckheimer attitude.)
?Yay, imipak, with that and this, one man could reduce a forest to firewood in a day.
Neither are suited to application in slow-growing hardwood forests, though, which I see as a Very Good Thing. If it becomes effectively free to farm forestry, and the price of hardwood felling doesn't change much, people will hopefully want hardwoods less, reducing the market for illegal logging.
Also: that's not a tree terminator, this is a tere terminator!
I for one welcome our robot treelogger overlords. Oh, wrong discussion forum ;)
Anyways, personally I find it rather beautiful. But I do enjoy interesting machine designs.
really eco-friendly harvester, yeah it's called two draft horses and an old guy with a beard
This one could walk circles around that one years ago.
http://www.boingboing.net/2002/06/19/insectoid-sixlegged-.html
Mules are better, they don't mess up their surroundings, they run on feed not oil, and their funky ears are super-cute.
interesting, but i'm more curious as to how a section of forest felled by a contraption such as this would be replanted.
i've been a treeplanter in the canadian north for two years, and gigantic clearcuts are a second home to me, and days spent filling them back up with trees is how i've funded my education and i'm all sorts of curious as to how much harder/easier it would be to replant a bloc cleared out by these things.
#19
yes, and they are well known for their natural skill and ability when it comes to felling and moving very large trees.
"...can pick up felled trees in a forest and extract them without harming nearby growth."
That is a load of BS. Even if the machine could do that no logging company would want to.
Existing "nearby growth" interfears/slows the replant and slows the next harvest. This is why in reality they clear to the ground, burn what's left, replant, come back two or three times to spray with broadleaf defoliant to kill all competing plants (alder, maple, chinkapin, oak, etc).
forestry practices vary. Greed is universal though.
More harvester videos for your viewing pleasure:
http://www.ponsse.com/videogallery/moviereq.php?movie=60050000
http://www.e-series.fi/en/working-in-the-forest/harvesters/1270e-winter.html
These are actually useful for sustainable logging. I worked at a lumber mill for a few summers that used a machine like this. The idea is that it would lower the cost of cutting to the point that they could effectively cut low grade trees for the sole purpose of raising the value of the bush entirely. So you cut the firewood out, sell it on the side, and then they would go back in years later and cut full grown trees, that because there is less competition from bad trees etc, are more often vaneer logs.
This company owned 10's of thousands of acres and only did selective cutting and using machines like this make it possible.