Autonomous Snowblower Utilizing Internet of Things for Minimal Power Consumption

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) has allowed devices to connect to external services and utilize outside information to create knowledge about their tasks and decide more intelligently regarding their processes. This paper presents an architecture to develop a novel autonomous snowblower concept that uses IoT to intelligently determine the best times to clear a driveway. By examining weather data for the area of operation, the snowblower will combine computer vision and Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) to effectively clear an area of snow before accumulation becomes too much for the electric motors to handle. This combination of IoT and conventional automation allows for a tradeoff between intelligence and power. The developed framework shows the benefits of IoT on a device like this, and how a lower power device, used intelligently, can be an effective solution for a larger problem.