Technical Tour
ISTVS 2025 | October 6-9, 2025 | Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA
Last updated
ISTVS 2025 | October 6-9, 2025 | Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA
Last updated
Technical tour will be held outside, rain or shine, please make sure to wear appropriate attire. Average New England temperatures during October range from 30°F / -1°C to 60°F / 15°C.
Wednesday, October 8
0700 - 1730
The technical tour will include two separate events about 1.5 miles apart. Participants will be bussed from the Hilton Garden Inn to and from the tour sites. The attendees will be split into two groups with the first group attending Team O’Neil Rally School Tarmac events and the second group attending the autonomy demonstrations at nearby Ridge Runner Promotions. The teams will meet back at Team O’Neil for lunch before switching areas for the afternoon session. The day will start with pickup at the hotel at 0700 for an 0800 start of the demonstrations and will return to the hotel around 1730 that evening.
Off-road vehicle autonomy faces unique challenges due to the unpredictable nature of off-road environments. Advancing modeling, estimation, and control methodologies for both subsystems and systems is key to unlocking the potential of autonomous off-road vehicles. These technologies have applications in sectors like agriculture, mining, construction, and defense. The upcoming demonstration (Wednesday) and workshop (Friday) aim to bring together the autonomous vehicle community to explore technical challenges, showcase promising directions, and discuss future opportunities. The event will feature four or five teams showcasing different off-road navigation approaches, with the workshop summarizing the demonstration for future research discussions and publications.
The Ridge Runner course is a more extreme example of off road mobility. This demonstration will be high-speed driving in rugged conditions, on asphalt, over gravel, and through winter weather affected terrain. These conditions are excellent for pushing vehicles to their theoretical limitations. This demonstration will include a discussion on how this applies to off road mobility and the many challenges of autonomy in these conditions.
Multi-time rally champions Team O'Neil and North American Rally champion Travis Hansen will demonstrate vehicle dynamics and soft soil mobility. There will be a static display and introduction to Rally cars and their modifications for high-speed, paved and unpaved-road performance.
Included is a ride-along asphalt rally experience (1 to 3 per vehicle, depending on number of participants and schedule).
The Autonomy workshop will be held on Friday to discuss the demonstrations and define the key needs and questions related to autonomy. The results of the workshop will be presented in a publication in the Journal of Terramechanics. The Autonomy workshop on Friday is co-organized by GVSC and will be held at the CRREL auditorium so will require registration but is free of charge.
