A steering guidance system for snowplow - an interesting control problem

Acquisition and utilization of the lateral guidance information is crucial for steering a vehicle. However, this task becomes difficult when the visual information loses its clarity. Driving a snowplow during whiteout condition is one such example. In order to improve the safety and efficiency of the snow removal operation, a supplemental steering guidance display was proposed and instrumented in a Caltrans snowplow. The guidance information was calculated based on the magnetic markers embedded under the roadway. Operations were successfully conducted on a 6.25 km freeway over Donner Summit on Interstate 80 in California during the 1998-1999 winter season. The key to this success was a clever transformation of the display problem into a control problem. This paper describes the problem formulation and the solution concept for this steering guidance system.