Monocular Autonomously-Controlled Snowplow

Samantha Craig, Matthew Miltner, Derek Fulk, Wouter Pelgrum, Frank van Graas

Abstract:	A Monocular Autonomously-Controlled Snowplow (M.A.C.S.) was designed, implemented and tested for participation in the First Annual Autonomous Snowplow Competition. The snowplow is all-electric and features four-wheel drive, a 0.8-m wide blade, constant velocity wheel controllers, gyroscopic heading stabilization and a scanning laser for positioning. The vehicle weighs 537 lbs and measures 1.27 m long, 0.72 m wide and 0.97 m tall. A flexible, Matlab®-based development environment was implemented for rapid prototyping and algorithm design. M.A.C.S. uses WiFi communications for remote control and separate radio-control for power shut-off. During the competition, M.A.C.S. operated fully autonomous to clear snow from two competition fields: a 1-m wide by 10-m long “I”-shaped field, and a “U”-shaped field with a width of 1 m that fits inside a 10-by-5 m rectangle. M.A.C.S. successfully completed both paths, leaving little snow residue and receiving a score of 68.1 points out of a possible 75 for plowing. In addition, Ohio University received a score of 23 points out of a possible 25 for their technical paper and presentation. In total, Ohio University received 91.1 points out of a possible 100 points, winning the competition and receiving $3,000 in prize money.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2011) September 20 - 23, 2011 Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon Portland, OR
Pages:	2127 - 2136
Cite this article:	Craig, Samantha, Miltner, Matthew, Fulk, Derek, Pelgrum, Wouter, van Graas, Frank, "Monocular Autonomously-Controlled Snowplow," Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2011), Portland, OR, September 2011, pp. 2127-2136.
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