A fuzzy logic controller design and simulation for a sawmill bucking system

This paper presents an alternative efficient solution to the sawmill bucking problem using a fuzzy logic controller/optimizer. Bucking is one of the first production stations where stems coming from the forests are analyzed and processed in a sawmill. A length and diameter measurement system provides an operator with stem information so he/she can make a decision on what blocks should be cut. Traditional bucking solutions are based on the operator´s experience, the data provided by the length and diameter measurement system and the visual inspection on the shape (sweep and taper) of the stem. The decisions of the operator are not exact but good enough or appropriate. The operator´s decisions have a common goal: to recover the most wood out of every tree stem. Fuzzy logic controller decisions, if appropriate, try to simulate the best common sense decisions that a human will make after evaluating a set of data. Fuzzy logic control systems, as is already known, are designed with the intention of replacing an expert human operator with an automated ruled-based system.