Automatic transfer of an articulated boom of a forwarder for handling logs

A forwarder, comprising:

• an articulated boom including a head of the boom, wherein the boom is movable in vertical and horizontal directions and slewable around a vertical rotation axis;
• a loading space that is open at the top;
• a control unit including a memory device for controlling movements of the boom;
• and
• at least one control device operatively connected to the control unit and adapted to be manually operable by an operator for setting off operations;
• wherein the head is adapted to have, for handling logs, a grapple suspended from it;
• and
• wherein the control unit is adapted to automatically, under control of the operator, to carry out a method including:
• storing in the control unit one or more predetermined paths of the head or the grapple;
• enabling an automatic transfer of the head or the grapple along one of the paths, wherein the enabling is carried out manually by the operator with the help of the control device;
• setting off the automatic transfer with the help of a predetermined motion or sequence of motions carried out manually by the operator with the help of the control device;
• automatically transferring the head or the grapple under control of the control unit, from a current position of the head or the grapple representing a starting position of the path, along the path, and to an end of the path representing a stopping position of the path;
• stopping the head or the grapple at the end of the path;
• and
• automatically disabling the automatic transfer of the head or the grapple under control of the control unit after reaching the stopping position.