YETI Demonstration of driverless Snow Sweepers

A successful demonstration of the first driverless snow sweepers in Norway!

Fagernes Airport was the arena for the first showing of Norway’s first snow sweepers without a driver. Luckily, there was more than enough snow!

The project was started as an innovation project by Avinor three years ago.

Yeti demo

“- The project is as far as we know among the first in the world where such big vehicles will be driving autonomous and make sure airport runways are free from snow. What we saw during the demonstration has exceeded our expectations, and we are very impressed by our partners, Semcon and Øveraasen, and what they have achieved through the project” says the CEO in Avinor, Dag Falk-Petersen.
“-It is important for Avinor to be leading when it comes to innovation. A lot of the air services will be solved differently in the future. Avinor wishes to test out the autonomy, and can clearly see benefits to be gained in the future by using new solutions in this area. At the moment it is too early to make this more specific, but we have to keep up with the development and initiate smart use of the technology, in order to be a leading airline industry in the future” adds the CEO.

More technology in the future

“- Avinor has many talented employees and skilled workers, and we want to use their expertise also in the future, but in collaboration with new technology” says the Director of Division in Avinor, Margrethe Snekkerbakken.
Yeti Snow Technology AS, with Øveraasen and Semcon as owners, has offered a complete delivery for the project all the way until the pilot test. They have associated with partners in both truck -and machine suppliers to gain full access to existing technology in the vehicles, and will then be able to develop this technology further.
The Minister of Transport and Communications Ketil Solvik-Olsen participated together with the Avinor Group Management, and representatives from Øveraasen AS and Semcon on the demonstration the 19th of March.