Levi Erickson, Austin Bosse, Darrin Frederick, Nathan Hanson

Self Navigating Objective Automaton (SNOA)

1854 NDSU Research Cir N
Fargo, ND 58102
10/28/15
Mr. James Jones
NDSU Mechanical Engineering Department
111 Dolve Hall
NDSU Dept. 2490, PO Box 6050
Fargo, ND 58102
Dear Mr. Jones,
We are interested in competing the St. Pauls ION Autonomous Snowplow competition in
January. As per our meeting last week concerning funding and scholarships to compete in this
event, we would greatly appreciate any support to purchase components and fabricate a
design. After the ION competition we would like to pursue the design further and potentially
create a product to sell or use on NDSUs campus. The snow blower industry is a large
potential market for an automated snow removal robot. Below you will find the pertinent
information and background for this market, along with how our design would be marketed to
various people.
History
The snow blower is an item that is often associated with winter in the northern portion of the
US. Snow blower is actually a misnomer, as the machines physically throw the snow. The
snow thrower was invented by Arthur Sicard in 1925 to be attached to a pickup truck. In 1951 it
was downsized and redesigned by Toro so that a single person could walk behind it and
operate it. Ariens, Gilson, and a few companies followed suit soon after.
Current Product Competitors
Today there are about 155 companies in the snow blower industry, with many of the large
names such as Toro, Craftsman, and Husqvarna taking up a large portion of the market
according to the US Census Bureau. Snow blower units range in price from 200$ to upwards of
2000$. The total snow blowing industry is worth around 575 million dollars, with around 1
million units being sold each year also according to the US Census Bureau. Single stage snow
blowers are 180 million of this and dual stage are 394 million of this amount. Many of the
names that are big in the snow blowing industry are also major competitors in other home and
garden equipment industries. For example, Toro and Craftsman also manufacture riding lawn
mowers, push lawn mowers, handheld edgers, and trimmers, just to name a few product lines.
Emerging Product Competitors
The snow blowing industry is tough to get into. With so many trusted name brands, few people
would want to buy elsewhere, unless the price is drastically lower or there is a significant
advantage to the product. The significant advantage of our proposal is complete automation.

Many of the new snow blowers in the market are redesigns from major companies, not new
products from startup companies (Bounds 2). There is a trend among many of the companies
to initially market their snow blowers to men as large, powerful, and cool machines. As soon as
that market has been saturated, many companies will try to tweak their design to create a
smaller, compact version which can be marketed to single, female homeowners. These
products are not new products, but just redesigned products.
The ION Snowplow Competition in the Twin Cities encourages the development of autonomous
snow removal machines. About eight colleges competed last year, including a team from North
Dakota State University. Nothing from this competition has been marketed to the public.
Target Market
The target market for an autonomous small scale snow removal robot would be the northern
portion of the US where snowfall is common and frequent. The obvious advantage to this
product would be the fact that it can clear snow without a human operator and still be
completely safe by Consumer Product Safety Commission standards.
We would market for this product to snow removal businesses that provide services to
townhomes and other types of apartment complexes. A business could afford to place one or
two of these robots at each townhome complex. Whenever there would be a small snowfall,
which occurs often during the winter in the north, the robots would be used to immediately clean
the driveways and sidewalks for the elderly. These robots would allow the snow removal
business to focus their employees elsewhere, such as large parking lots, where a large portion
of income can be made.
In addition to small businesses, the general public would be another potential market if the cost
can be made affordable. Anyone who would rather stay inside, not shovel, and would enjoy the
safety of a clean driveway all the time could greatly benefit from this product. This means that
when it is cold, windy, and dark at 3 a.m. when the snowstorm hits, the robot would be working
to clear the driveway. The SNOA would allow homeowners peace of mind that they can get to
work every morning.

Thank you very much for your time Mr. Jones. We are excited to hear your thoughts and to
move forward in this process.
Sincerely,

Levi Erickson, Austin Bosse, Darrin Frederick, and Nathan Hanson

Works Cited
Bounds, Wendy. "Women Homeowners: Hot Snowblower (and Chainsaw) Market."
Developments RSS. The Wall Street Journal, 15 Jan. 2009. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
<http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2009/01/15/women-homeowners-hot-snowblower-andchainsaw-market/>.
Crary, David. "7 Things Your Snow Removal Business Can Do to Stay Ahead of the Pack." The
Hindsite Solution. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2015. <http://success.hindsitesoftware.com/fieldservice-software-blog/7-things-your-snow-removal-business-can-do-to-stay-ahead-of-the-pack>.
Erickson, Levi. Automated Snow Removal. Survey. 22 October 2015.
Fenniak, Donald. "Snow Removal Technology." Jobber Blog. N.p., 04 Oct. 2013. Web. 24 Oct.
2015. <https://blog.getjobber.com/2013/10/snow-removal-technology/>.
"General Summary: Industry Statistics by Industry and Primary Product Class Specialization:
2012 " American FactFinder. United States Census Bureau, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2015.
<http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk>.
"The Sixth Annual ION Autonomous Snowplow Competition." The ION Autonomous Snowplow
Competition. The Institute of Navigation, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.autosnowplow.com/welcome.html>.
"Snow Thrower Safety." Snow Thrower Safety (n.d.): n. pag. U.S. Consumer Product Safety
Commision, 20 Jan. 2012. Web. 24 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.cpsc.gov//Global/Safety%20Education/Home%20Garden%20Outdoors/5117_Snow
thower_Safety_Alert.pdf>.