The project will involve converting an existing Zamboni vehicle to a drive-by-wire platform, equipping it with the needed sensing and computing components, running system identification and vehicle modeling experiments, and developing the autonomy software to achieve and demonstrate autonomous leader-follower functionality.
This capability will establish the foundation for completely autonomous ice resurfacing operations that would address various needs in the industry regarding finding and retaining qualified operators and eliminating variance in quality due to human imperfections.