Seven students and their Snow Devil 1012 plow will compete in the Fifth Annual Institute of Navigation (ION) Autonomous Snowplow Competition in Rice Park this weekend.
The competition runs Jan. 24-25 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Rice Park, Downtown St. Paul, Minn.
According to the ION Autonomous Snowplow Competition website: “The purpose of this competition is to challenge university and college students, as well as the general public, to design, build, and operate a fully autonomous snowplow to remove snow from a designated path. The objectives of this competition include encouraging students and individuals to utilize the state of the art in navigation and control technologies to rapidly, accurately, and safely clear a path of snow.”
The Snow Devil 1012 uses a magnetic navigation system to track a 0-3VDC signal. Course correction calculations are done in an Allen Bradley MicroLogix PLC.
Come out and see the latest autonomous navigation technologies from eight of the top engineering universities in the nation.
This is the fifth year Dunwoody has participated in the competition. Here is a preview of the team’s 2015 entry:
For more information about the competition, visit www.autosnowplow.com.