Earlier this year Fagernes Airport in Norway made history when autonomous snowploughs were deployed to clear the airport’s tarmac.
Yeti Snow Technology, which is co-owned by Semcon and Øverasasen for the Norwegian airport operator, Avinor, now plans to trial the self-driving snowploughs at Oslo Airport in January 2019.
“Having tested the control system at Fagernes Airport, we are really pleased that we are now able to launch this pilot scheme at Oslo Airport,” said John Emil Halden, project manager at Semcon.
“Our aim is to complete 40 operations to ensure that the system is working as intended and see how we can develop it further,” he continued. Halden expressed his hopes for more airports around the world to adopt this technology.
Helping to improve operations throughout the airport during adverse weather conditions, autonomous snowploughs have the ability to enable airports to streamline their operations and reduce delays for their passengers.
Two autonomous vehicles will go into live operation at Oslo in January to clear snow at one of the busiest airports in Scandinavia. In the future, the objective is to maintain a fleet of 10 self-driving snowploughs to keep runways clear of snow.
