Development of Rotary Snow Blower Vehicle Driving Support System using Quasi-Zenith Satellite on the Expressway in Japan

The rotary snow blower vehicle operated for removing accumulated snow on road shoulders must be performed even in the conditions of a poor visibility due to a snowstorm or road markings completely covered by snow. The operators of the vehicle have to pay full attention to avoid contacting road structures and ordinary cars passing just beside the snow removal vehicle. Therefore, we have developed a high-precision snow removal vehicle positioning device using a quasi-zenith satellite and a high-precision expressway map for the first time in Japan. The device can indicate precisely the exact position of the snow blower vehicle on expressways in real time and the operator can drive the vehicle by watching a monitor showing the assistant information provided by the device. The error of the indicated location would be relatively small such as less than a few ten centimeters and several tests have been carried out in a special test field and on the expressway in Hokkaido