Purpose of Review

Winch-assist systems have seen rapid development, adoption, and implementation in many parts of the world in the past decade and can be considered one of the major recent innovations in steep terrain harvesting. Though a comparatively young topic, the literature around this topic has grown considerably during the last decade. This review summarizes the present body of literature on winch-assist systems and provides a comprehensive introduction to the topic.

Recent Findings

The analysis showed that work safety in steep terrain harvesting operations has increased through winch-assist systems by removing workers from the many hazards of manual and motor-manual work. The extent of rutting, subsequent erosion, and soil densification after working with winch-assist systems was found to be similar to operations on gentle terrain or cable logging. Winch-assist harvesting is considered more productive than conventional steep terrain harvesting. While case studies provide indicative utilization and productivity values, a robust understanding of economic viability under varied stand and terrain conditions is not yet well established.

Summary

Winch-assist is proving to be a robust, safe, and high-performance forest harvesting technology that has increased the operating range of ground-based, mechanized harvesting. It can help increase access to forest grounds in steep terrain that are previously considered economically marginal for forest management. Besides steep terrain, the potential benefits of winch-assist in reducing soil disturbance from ground-based equipment indicate that its operating range can also expand to gentle terrain where environmental impacts are of great concern due to wet or unstable soils. As the technology is relatively young and still evolving, there are many unknown social, environmental, and economic challenges and opportunities associated with the winch-assist technology. More research is certainly warranted.

中文翻译：

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绞车辅助收割的发展和好处

审查目的

在过去的十年中，绞车辅助系统在世界许多地区得到了快速的开发，采用和实施，可以被认为是陡峭地形采集中的最新重大创新之一。尽管是一个相对较年轻的话题，但是在过去的十年中，围绕这个话题的文献有了很大的增长。这篇综述总结了有关绞车辅助系统的现有文献，并对这一主题进行了全面介绍。

最近的发现

分析表明，通过绞盘辅助系统可以使工人摆脱手工和机动工作的许多危险，从而提高了陡峭地形收割作业的安全性。发现在使用绞车辅助系统后，车辙，随后的侵蚀和土壤致密化的程度类似于在平缓地形或电缆测井上的操作。绞车辅助收割被认为比常规的陡峭地形收割更有生产力。虽然案例研究提供了指示性的利用率和生产率值，但尚未很好地了解在不同林分和地形条件下的经济可行性。

概要

绞车辅助被证明是一种强大，安全和高性能的森林采伐技术，它增加了地面机械化采伐的工作范围。它可以帮助增加人们进入陡峭地形的森林地面的机会，这些地形以前被认为对森林经营没有经济意义。除陡峭的地形外，绞车辅助在减少地面设备对土壤的干扰方面的潜在优势表明，其工作范围还可以扩展至平缓的地形，在该地形上，由于潮湿或不稳定的土壤而对环境的影响非常令人关注。由于这项技术相对较年轻并且仍在发展中，因此绞车辅助技术存在许多未知的社会，环境和经济挑战与机遇。当然，需要进行更多的研究。