Ten teams from the United States and Canada will compete
Ready. Set. Plow. On January 17 and 18, 2025, Dunwoody College of Technology will once again host the annual Autonomous Snowplow Competition. The yearly event challenges college and university teams from across the United States and Canada to design, program, and construct an autonomous vehicle capable of plowing paths of snow using navigation and control technology rather than a human operator.
Created by the Institute of Navigation (ION), the event was originally held during the Saint Paul Winter Carnival.
Ten teams from seven colleges and universities will put their autonomous snowplows to the test as they attempt to plow their way to a podium finish.
The competition will kick off on Friday, January 17, with vehicle safety inspections and presentations from each of the teams. On Saturday, January 18, the teams will each have two attempts to plow snow from a straight T-shaped course.
The public is invited to watch the snowplows in action on Saturday, with course runs taking place from 8 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m. in the Dunwoody parking lot.
Stop by this fun, free event to see the latest in autonomous technology in action and cheer on your favorite team. Competitors include teams from: Case Western Reserve University, Iowa State University, Lake Area Tech, North Dakota State University, University of Ottawa, Université Laval, and Dunwoody.
The event will also be livestreamed for those who can’t attend in person. Watch the event here. More information about the event can be found at autosnowplow.com.
THE DUNWOODY TEAMS
Three Dunwoody teams will compete in this year’s event: Snow Devil, Ice Hawks, and Road Salt. The students have spent the last several months modifying, testing, and improving the three autonomous snowplows.
The yearly tournament serves as an opportunity to showcase the technology, skills, and problem-solving needed to build and program machines that can independently clear piles of snow without any manual control.
Comprised of students from across campus, the Dunwoody teams each showcase a different navigation technology: machine vision with fiducial targets, indoor GPS, and magnet strip navigation.