Journal article
Augmented Reality in Forestry: Current Capabilities, Limitations, and Future Directions
Current Forestry Reports, Vol.12, pp.1-24
2026
Abstract
Purpose of the Review This semi-systematic review examines how augmented reality (AR) was developed and applied in forestry between 2000 and 2025. With a European focus and international scope, it integrates peer-reviewed literature, grey literature, and commercially available tools to capture progress and practice. It maps AR use cases, characterises hardware, software, and data pipelines, assesses Technology Readiness Levels, and identifies barriers, research gaps, and priorities for future deployment.Recent Findings AR in forestry is moving from isolated prototypes towards early operational implementation. The most mature applications are found in forest inventory, urban forestry, and roundwood measurement, where smartphone- and tablet-based tools using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), Red, Green, Blue, and Depth (RGB-D) sensing, Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM), and computer vision have reached moderate to high readiness, with some commercially deployed. Head-mounted displays and machine-integrated systems are being tested for stand visualisation, digital tree marking, planting guidance, and harvesting support, but most remain at pilot stage. Most systems cluster around TRL 4-6, while only a limited subset reaches TRL 7-9.Summary AR in forestry is a heterogeneous but rapidly evolving ecosystem of mobile, wearable, and machine-integrated solutions. Persistent barriers include under-canopy tracking instability, weak georeferencing, limited ruggedness and battery life, ergonomic constraints, poor interoperability, and limited validation. AR nevertheless shows strong potential as a human-centred interface, but wider deployment will require forest-adapted localisation, lightweight 3D visualisation, stronger system integration, and closer collaboration across stakeholders.
Details
- Title
- Augmented Reality in Forestry: Current Capabilities, Limitations, and Future Directions
- Authors
- Felipe De Miguel-Diez (Corresponding Author) - University of FreiburgAlberto Udali - University of PaduaFrancesco Latterini - Polish Academy of SciencesFrederico Tupinamba-Simoes - Universidad de ValladolidPhilip Chambers - University of Eastern FinlandKarol Tomczak - Łukasiewicz Research Network - Poznań Institute of TechnologyZennure Ucar - Izmir Kâtip Çelebi UniversityRaquel Lobo-do-Vale - University of LisbonYannik Wardius - University of FreiburgFunda Yildirim - University of TwenteEbru Bilici - Giresun UniversityEmilia Tcherkezova - Bulgarian Academy of SciencesFelipe Bravo - Universidad de ValladolidOleksandr Soshenskyi - National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of UkraineSafia El-Alami - University of FreiburgLukas Stopfer - University of FreiburgMartino Rogai - National Research CouncilPedro Britto - CoLAB ForestWISEMilutin Milenkovic - International Institute for Applied Systems AnalysisAvinash Shanmugam - University of FreiburgAlexander Kaulen - German Center for Forest Work and Technology (Germany)Mauricio Acuna - University of the Sunshine CoastThomas Purfurst - University of Freiburg
- Publication details
- Current Forestry Reports, Vol.12, pp.1-24
- Publisher
- Springer
- Date published
- 2026
- DOI
- 10.1007/s40725-026-00283-x
- ISSN
- 2198-6436
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Data Availability
- The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.
- Grant note
- This research received funding from multiple sources, including the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL, Germany) through the Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR) under Grant No. 2223NR030X (ForestAR), and from the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung (Baden-Württemberg Foundation) under the WaldAgil project (grant no. KLR-030). This publication is also based upon work from COST Action [ARiF, CA23135], supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). Open Access funding enabled and organised by Projekt DEAL. Raquel Lobo-do-Vale was supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., through the researcher contract CEECIND/02735/2018 (doi: https://doi.org/10.54499/CEECIND/02735/2018/CP1563/CT0001). Milutin Milenković was supported by the C4C project, funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) under the ASAP 2022 call (Project ID: 900626).
- Organisation Unit
- Forest Industries Research Centre
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991250587602621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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