I dreamed up some ideas about this a few years back: Design and Development: Robotics Teams Compete for Best Robotic Snowplow | Robotics Trends.
In my concept, we only need a small personal robotic snow plow. As soon as it starts snowing and there is perhaps just one inch of snow on the ground, the robot snow plow starts plowing the driveway or path.
It could even use a behavior-based approach, like the Roomba vacuum cleaner, where it seemingly randomly plows the driveway, but due to probabilities, covers everything anyway. Obstacle detection leads to a reverse course – or if necessary, a panic stop.
Since its a robot, it (and we) do not care if just plows all the time to stay ahead of the snow, as long as the battery holds out and an auto charger is available.
There could even be a fleet of little robots to cover larger areas.
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