Skip to main content

Semcon deploys autonomous snowploughs at Norwegian airport

Semcon has deployed 20 autonomous snowploughs to clear runways at Fagernes Airport in Leirin, Norway, which are said to clear an area of 357,500 square metres an hour. The machines, according to the company’s chief executive officer Markus Granlund, will allow airports all over the world to streamline activities and reduce delays for passengers. The project has been developed by Yeti Snow Technology and is co-owned by Semcon and Øveraasen, for airport operator Avinor. These systems are said to clear snow
March 26, 2018 Read time: 1 min

Semcon has deployed 20 autonomous snowploughs to clear runways at Fagernes Airport in Leirin, Norway, which are said to clear an area of 357,500 square metres an hour. The machines, according to the company’s chief executive officer Markus Granlund, will allow airports all over the world to streamline activities and reduce delays for passengers.

The project has been developed by Yeti Snow Technology and is co-owned by Semcon and Øveraasen, for airport operator Avinor. These systems are said to clear snow in formation with several vehicles working together.

John Emil Halden, Semcon’s project manager, said: “We have designed a control system that sets up digital patterns for autonomous snow clearance at airports. The system can then download these patterns and monitor a number of vehicles that navigate using RTK GPS, an accurate form of position measurement, and communicate using 4G modems.”

Related Content

  • The Asia-Pacific poses a multitude of ITS challenges
    May 30, 2014
    The Asia-Pacific ITS Forum and Exhibition in Auckland, New Zealand, provided a focus for the region’s ITS Associations. Mary Bell reports. In late April, ITS New Zealand hosted the 13th Asia-Pacific ITS Forum and Exhibition in Auckland. Around 350 delegates from 24 nations gathered to share and advance ITS applications on both strategic and technical levels and to discuss the differing and various challenges faced in the region.
  • Smart snowplough research
    February 2, 2012
    Researchers at the University of Minnesota are working on a method that helps snowploughs determine exactly where slippery patches are and to target those specific areas with their sand-and-salt mixtures.
  • Future of tolling: the priorities
    January 14, 2020
    In the final part of his investigation into the future of tolling technology, Josef Czako of Moving Forward Consulting asks what industry figures see as the priorities going forward…
  • Autumn budget: EV charging infrastructure fund and higher tax rates for diesel vehicles
    November 23, 2017
    Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond has announced a £400m ($532m) charging infrastructure fund for electric vehicles (EVs), an extra £100m ($133m) investment in Plug-In-Car Grant, and a £40m ($53m) in charging R&D in the UK’s Autumn Budget 2017. He added that laws need to be clarified so that motorists who charge their EVs at work will not face a benefit-in-kind charge from next year.