Natural imperfections in timber – such as galls formed by resin and wood knots caused by dead branches – are laborious and time-consuming to treat, and require skilled human intervention. To date, no machine has been capable of carrying out these vital tasks.

“Repair and patching of resin pockets and lose dead knots is a costly and disruptive process requiring off-line human interaction and skilled handcrafting in order to add value and quality to the final products,” explains Federico Giudiceandrea, the CEO of Microtec, which develops opto-electronics for the timber-processing industry. “The challenge is to replace the human workforce involved in these tasks with machines.”

The EU-supported HOL-I-WOOD PR project sought to do just that, with the aim of enhancing productivity and accuracy, while reducing cost. The three-year project, which came to a close at the end of 2014, has developed a fully automated wood-patching robot which will “revolutionise the current way defects on wooden panels are removed and repaired”.

Seeds of greater productivity

The workers tasked with patching timber work long hours in tough conditions, which can lead to human error when workloads rise. “Increases in the volume of production prevent the human eye from being able to recognise all the defects. This affects the consistency of the production line,” notes Giudiceandrea.

“The wood-patching robot addresses and compensates for these human failings. As a completely automated system, it will be able to withstand difficult working conditions for an extended period of time,” he adds.

HOL-I-WOOD PR’s robotic system is not only considerably more accurate and versatile than humans, it is also substantially more productive. The robot can repair up to 450 wood panels an hour, which is the equivalent of a workforce of 50 people.

This is great news for individual firms and the timber industry. It will free workers from the tedious and difficult tasks of repairing timber and this high-tech solution carries the potential of creating higher quality jobs. “Our goal is to increase productivity by improving the quality of production and making the tasks easier for the operators,” asserts Giudiceandrea.

Below GoldenEye-600 for Patching Robot

© HOL-I-WOOD PR project

The ghost in the machine

In his seminal work The Ghost in the Machine, Arthur Koestler proposed the idea of “holons”. A holon is both a whole, in its own right, and part of a greater system. In the technology domain, autonomous systems can be combined to form multi-agent systems that operate both independently and simultaneously.

HOL-I-WOOD PR’s robotic system is based on just such an architecture. Multiple sensors – such as x-ray scanners, laser scanners, as well as black-and-white cameras and colour cameras – work in unison with an artefact classification system and the patching robot to instantly identify and repair all types of defects. This versatile architecture enables HOL-I-WOOD PR to handle wooden planks of various dimensions and sizes, ranging from a few centimetres to several metres.

The HOL-I-WOOD PR concept was demonstrated in a "glue lam" laminated wood panel factory because “shutter boards are a perfectly representative mid-size product”, explains Giudiceandrea. The demonstrator proved that the mobile concept was easy to control, reliable and efficient, while boosting safety for workers on the factory floor.

Once rolled out, the HOL-I-WOOD PR robot promises to deliver numerous benefits to the timber industry. It will bolster productivity, reduce costs, save energy and improve the quality of the wood produced. “At present [our] Goldeneye Scanner is very successful and we have many orders,” maintains Giudiceandrea, “and now this HOL-I-WOOD PR robot makes the future even more promising. Up to now, we have about 200 Goldeneye installations all over the world.”