Forestry trucks in Sweden must choose a route from a forest landing to a mill, but the shortest path can run down roads too narrow, curved or steep for a loaded timber truck, or that road authorities and residents restrict.
The Forestry Research Institute and partners built Krönt Vägval, a calibrated route-finder that scores each candidate route on distance, road width, curvature, gradient and traffic safety, and selects the overall best.
The tool, owned and run by SDC, was recognized with the 2016 INFORMS Daniel H. Wagner Prize for a real application built on a strong mathematical foundation.
Score routes, don't just shorten them
Shortest distance ignores roads that are unsafe or unsuitable for heavy trucks
Scoring route quality lets the model trade cost against safety and environment
Calibration makes the tool usable across many forest-to-mill journeys
Industry ownership through SDC turned an algorithm into everyday planning
For fleets on shared roads the shortest route is rarely the best; score route quality on the constraints that matter and let the model trade them off.
Krönt Vägval is in everyday use across the Swedish forestry industry and won the 2016 INFORMS Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice.
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The sources
- Internationellt pris för arbetet med Krönt vägval Skogforsk · skogforsk.se ·
- Introduction: 2016 Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice Interfaces · pubsonline.informs.org