Research project This project examines the safety opportunities and risks of AI-based automation in forestry. AI automation, involving machine learning to control systems previously operated by humans, promises safer workplaces by reducing human involvement in dangerous tasks. However, it also introduces new risks if autonomous machines behave unpredictably. The project explores these dynamics to provide insights on mitigating risks and leveraging AI for improved workplace safety.
This project explores how AI-based automation in forestry—using machine learning to control tasks once performed by humans—impacts workplace safety. While AI can reduce accidents by taking over dangerous tasks, it also introduces new risks, particularly if heavy autonomous machines behave unpredictably. By examining both the opportunities and risks, the project aims to provide insights on how to enhance safety while harnessing the benefits of AI in forestry.
Project objectives
The purpose of this project is to investigate the opportunities and risks for workplace safety associated with AI-based automation in forestry work. AI-based automation refers to the use of machine learning algorithms to dictate the behaviors of systems that carry out tasks previously conducted by humans.
Background
AI and autonomous systems have led firms in most industries to consider the opportunities offered by these technologies in terms of work process streamlining. A current example is Swedish forestry: industry actors have recently increased their investments in digitally driven R&D. The most prominent technological forefront is increasingly digitized forest machines. This is demonstrated in the implementation of machine learning algorithms for fully autonomous forestry machines, such as harvesters and forwarders.
AI-based autonomation offers opportunities for improving workplace safety, but also brings unintended consequences and introduce new risks. It can on the one hand decrease the number of workplace accidents by replacing human workers performing highly dangerous work tasks or assist human workers by collecting and analyzing sensor data and warn about unforeseen hazards. On the other hand, as heavy vehicles are in and of themselves hazardous for human agents if they display undesirable behaviors or start to act out of their own accord, they can increase or introduce new risks to workplace safety.
Research question
What new opportunities and risks does AI-based automation pose to workplace safety?
Expected contributions
Studying the potential implications of AI-based automation for workplace safety in forestry requires contextual investigations of practitioners’ expectations and visions. Through investigating the opportunities and risks for workplace safety emerging from AI-based automation, the project will contribute an understanding of how these risks come about and how they can be mitigated, as well as how AI-related opportunities can reduce workplace safety issues of various kinds.
