The forest engineering discipline is affiliated with the first-level discipline of forestry engineering. We began offering doctoral degrees in 2003. The Forest Engineering discipline is a key discipline of Beijing and the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, and offers a postdoctoral mobile station for forestry engineering. The forest engineering discipline has three key research and teaching areas: forest engineering equipment and automation, forest man machine environment and safety, and forest and environmental information monitoring. The forest engineering discipline has three laboratories: Forestry and Environmental Special Equipment Laboratory, Forest Equipment and Man Machine Safety Laboratory, and Forest Environment Monitoring and Information Processing Laboratory. Further, the forest engineering discipline also has three research platforms: the Key Laboratory of Forestry Equipment and Automation of the National Forestry and Grassland Bureau, the Forestry and Environmental Special Equipment Research Institute of Beijing Forestry University, and the Forestry Equipment Base of Beijing Forestry University (Jiufeng National Forest Park). Our faculties have developed multi-functional three-dimensional sand fixation vehicles, tree pruning and tending robots, forest and forest fruit harvesting equipment, remote mountain monorail vehicles, and made great strides in the field of precision forest pesticide application, forestry image processing, and forest environment micro-energy collection. We closely follow the popular domestic and international research areas related to forest engineering and industry trends, striving to educate innovative students with an international vision.

Our faculties have successfully completed over 50 projects which were funded by various organizations in the national, provincial and ministerial level. These organizations include the National Natural Science Foundation, the National 863, the National Science and Technology Key Project, the National Science and Technology Support Program, the National Key Research and Development Program, the Ministry of Science and Technology Agricultural Science and Technology Achievements Transformation Project, the Ministry of Education Doctoral Fund,the National Forestry and Grassland Administration948, and the National Forestry non-profit Industry research special project and Fok Ying Tung Foundation. Since 1990, out faculties were granted more than 60 patents including 33 invention patents, have won 6 provincial and ministerial awards, published 15 books, and issued more than 200 papers which include more than 100 papers collected by SCI and EI.

We have established an academic exchange relationship with universities and organizations in the United States, Canada, Japan, Germany, Finland, Canada, and other countries. Accordingly, our faculties have the opportunity to participate in international academic conferences and perform cooperative research. We have also invited experts from the Forest Products Laboratory of the United States Department of Agriculture, the Japan Forest Research Institute, Shimane University, and the University of Toronto to lecture and conduct research in the School of Technology.

Awards

Forest Man-Machine-Environment and Safety

The man-machine and environmental engineering research direction – which is people-oriented and widely applied to various industries – aims to optimize the interactions among humans, machines, and the environment, thereby improving efficiency, comfort, and safety. This new research direction was established with financial support from the 211 Project, which mainly focuses on man-machine safety, comfort, and man-machine interface optimization based on physiological and psychological characteristics. We have successfully completed over 10 projects that were funded by various organizations in the national, provincial and ministerial level. These include the China Scholarship Council, Fok Ying Tung Foundation, and the Ministry of Education Doctoral Fund. We have published more than 30 SCI and El collected papers in top-ranked journals of ergonomics, such as Applied Ergonomics, and 4 books including Building interior and furniture design ergonomics, Forestry Engineering Research Progress, and Chinese Encyclopedia (concise edition), among others. Research achievements include the development of a human body balance testing instrument, optimization of a man-machine interface in portable forestry machinery, research on human body load on the influence law of human body balance, in which the optimization method and technology of man-machine interface are proposed.

Forest Engineering Equipment and Automation

This research direction mainly focuses on man-made forest tending, forest biomass resources harvest and gather, sand wasteland management, and vegetation restoration technology and equipment. This research direction has 2 laboratories and 1 base: Forest Equipment and Man Machine Safety Laboratory, Forestry and Environmental Special Equipment Laboratory, and the Forestry Equipment Base of Beijing Forestry University (Jiufeng National Forest Park). Our faculties have successfully completed over 30 projects that were funded by various organizations in the national, provincial, and ministerial level. Our sponsors include the National Science and Technology Key Project, the National Science and Technology Support Program, the National Natural Science Foundation, the Ministry of Science and Technology Agricultural Science and Technology Achievements Transformation Project, the National Forestry non-profit Industry research special project, The National Forestry and Grassland Administration 948, the Ministry of Education Doctoral Fund, and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. We have been strengthening collaboration by combining the efforts of enterprises, universities, and research institutes. There are a few enterprises – including China Fuma (Group) Co., Ltd. and Gansu Jiantou – that have already participated in this collaboration. Our researchers have developed modern forestry equipment such as a remote-controlled automatic standing tree pruning robot, combined forest breeding machine, straw-checkerboard sand fixation robot, precision targeting forest pesticide application vehicle, as well as forest fruit harvesting and shelling machine.

Forest and Environmental Information Monitoring

This research direction is mainly engaged in research activities on intelligent identification, measurement, and information processing of forest environment with forestry robots. Completed projects include three-dimensional reconstruction and measurement of living tree based on color image, integrated Internet of Thing (IoT) management platform for an economic forest, forest fire monitoring system based on wireless video and sensor network, forestry robot real-time monitoring and map creation based on binocular vision and research, development, and the application of a real-time living tree diameter at breast height measurement system based on wireless sensor network. Some of the ongoing projects include developing forestry robots and drone visual systems, living tree bioelectricity and system forest soil thermoelectric power generation and related measurements. Our faculties have successfully completed over 10 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation and others with scientific research funds totaling over 3 million yuan, published more than 50 SCI/EI collected academic papers, and were granted more than 40 invention patents and software copyrights.