ASR - Brainstorming, Research, and Competitor Products!

To gain inspiration and understand what solutions are already out there for our problem, Icebreaker researched different competitor products. We took note of what design aspects of each solution worked well and also their shortcomings so Icebreaker can improve on our design.

Autonomous Salting Robot (ASR) by Saltonomous Industries

The ASR is an autonomous de-icing robot that uses magnetic line following to chart a path for itself. Saltonomous is attached with weather sensors to sense potentially hazardous weather conditions and salt preemptively. Icebreaker loves the idea of having a fully autonomous robot, where zero workers would have to de-ice the area and the fact that the ASR has a weather sensor. The ASR is a great concept, but it is a very small robot, meaning that weather conditions like wind could knock the ASR down. Additionally, the ASR requires magnetic lining to move, meaning that facilities personnel would have to place this lining all over their work area.

The components of the robot do not appear to have any protection or cover against weather conditions, meaning that this robot would probably get damaged if it was operating under precipitation. The top hopper where the ASR holds the rock salt is rather small, meaning that the ASR would need a reload of de-icing material fairly often.

As stated before, the ASR is an amazing proof of concept project that has gone beyond our goals in some aspects due to time, money, and skill constraints. Their autonomous system is something that Icebreaker would work on if we had more resources. The ASR is not ready to go out to work though, because it is too small, has exposed components, and requires a preplacement of magnetic strips to function. From Saltonomous Industries' ASR, we have gained knowledge about design considerations for our robot and have seen what the next steps are for our robot after this project is over.