Distributed Autonomous Snow-Clearing Systems for Public Roads

A Conceptual Design, Sizing Analysis, and Economic Framework for Physical-AI Winter Road Safety

Abstract

Winter road conditions kill more than 1,300 people and injure over 116,800 annually in the United States on snowy, slushy, or icy pavement, while national winter-maintenance operations consume approximately $2.3 billion per year and roughly 20% of state Department of Transportation budgets. The prevailing operational model human-operated plow trucks working overnight storm shifts is capacity-constrained, fatigue-limited, and budget-fragile; documented state responses to cost pressure include deliberately leaving low-traffic highways unplowed overnight. This paper proposes a distributed autonomous snow-clearing system: compact autonomous plow units operating in coordinated convoys during low-traffic overnight windows, protected by an escort/signal vehicle following the beacon-signaling precedent established in active U.S. DOT truck-platooning pilots. The paper presents a quantified problem analysis from federal safety and cost data; a systems architecture with orthographic general-arrangement drawings; first-order sizing calculations covering blade forces, power, traction, stopping distance, battery capacity, and fleet sizing; an economic and nationwide-scaling analysis benchmarked against current DOT expenditure; and a phased deployment pathway grounded in three operating precedents commercial autonomous haulage in mining, winter-condition truck platooning on public highways, and a decade of academic autonomous-snowplow robotics. First-order results indicate per-unit blade power of order 14 kW, unit mass of order 1,200 kg, and a 12–15 unit fleet sufficient for a 500 priority-lane-mile city within a four-hour window physically plausible scales using present-day components.