Ohio University Team Wins Second ION Autonomous Snow Plow Competition

February 7, 2012 - By GPS World Staff

Photo: Ohio University

An Ohio University team won the Institute of Navigation (ION) Satellite Division’s second annual ION Autonomous Snowplow Competition. The competition was held January 26-29, at Rice Park in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, in conjunction with the 126^th Saint Paul Winter Carnival.

Sponsored by The Institute of Navigation Satellite Division and held in cooperation with the ION North Star Section, the ION Annual Autonomous Snowplow Competition is a national event open to college and university students, as well as the general public, that challenges teams to design, build, and operate a fully autonomous snowplow using state of the art navigation and control technologies to rapidly, accurately and safely clear a designated path of snow.

Six teams participated during the four-day competition, each using unique vehicle design approaches.

Teams included students, partners from private industry and faculty advisors from Dunwoody College of Technology; Miami University (Ohio); Ohio University; The University of Michigan, Dearborn; and The University of Minnesota.

Teams were judged based upon their cumulative scores earned throughout the competition phases: 75% of the total score was based upon the plowing competition; and 25% of the total score was based upon the presentations and pre-event report.

First place was awarded to Ohio University students Samantha Craig, Ryan Kollar, Kuangmin Li and Pengfei Duan with support from faculty advisors Frank van Graas, Woulter Pelgrum and Maarten Uijt de Haag. The first place prize included $3,000 and a golden snow globe trophy.

Second place was awarded to Miami University students Chad Sobota, Mark Carroll, Robert Cole, Mark Stratis, with support from student advisors Steve Taylor, Ryan Wolfarth and Harrison Bourne and faculty advisors Jade Morton, Peter Jamieson and Janet Burge. The second place prize included $2,000 and a silver snow globe trophy.

Third place was awarded to the University of Michigan (Dearborn) students Angelo Bertani, Zach DeGeorge, Mark Lawrence, Doris Kotori, Alf Williams, with support from student advisors Benjamin Craig, Jhonatan Ferrer, and faculty advisor Narasimhamurthi Natarajan. The third place prize included $1,000 and a bronze snow globe trophy.

In addition, the first place team, Ohio University, will be invited to display their winning snowplow during ION GNSS 2012 Conference September 17-21, 2012 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Sponsors of the second annual ION Autonomous Snowplow Competition included Lockheed Martin Corporation, ASTER Labs, Inc, Honeywell, Inc., Alliant Techsystems Inc., U.S. Bancorp, Hitching Post Motorsports, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., and The Toro Company.

The Third Annual ION Autonomous Snowplow Competition will be held in January 2013 at the Saint Paul Carnival, St. Paul, Minnesota.