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# 5658 - WINTER ROUTE PLANNING ALGORITHM

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Paper presented at ISTVS 2025 | 55th Conference of the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems <https://doi.org/10.56884/HKXFJ43Z>
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**Authors:** *Mark Bodie*

**Keywords:** Route planning; Graph; Mobility

**Abstract:**

Cold regions represent an especially challenging environment for maneuver. In addition to standard obstacles which occur in less extreme environments, the surface itself can become an obstacle. Winter surfaces are characterized by low strength, resulting in deep vehicle sinkage with high motion resistances. In this work, we developed a cold regions route planning (WRP) algorithm that identifies low risk routes that minimizes the energy required by the vehicle to complete a mission. The algorithm fuses weather, terrain, and vehicle information to generate a unique on and off-road graph of the area of interest. A winter surface algorithm is used to predict the current snowpack’s depth and density using weather and terrain information. This information along with vehicle data, is used to generate the vehicle’s motion resistance and work associated with surface compaction, tree push over force, and gravity forces. Search requests are initiated, and optimal routes are displayed through kml files, enabling the use of existing GIS software to interface with the WRP algorithm. Experiments were conducted at the Camp Ethan Allen Test Site to validate the algorithm. Driven and predicted routes and mission completion times were compared with favorable results. Additional algorithm enhancements are identified to improve route accuracy and in-field operation.


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