State DOTs across the country are funding, deploying, and refining intelligent systems. 

Erika Gallegos, assistant professor, Colorado State University Department of Systems Engineering, and Rachel Spurrier, CSU Civil & Environmental Engineering, attended the Annual Autonomous Maintenance Technology Peer Exchange in Minnesota, May 2025.

This peer exchange is part of a multi-year effort funded through a Federal Highway Administration pooled fund – a collaborative research model where multiple state departments of transportation (DOTs) contribute resources to tackle shared challenges. CSU helps manage this fund, which currently involves 17 state DOTs exploring autonomous systems for safer, more efficient roadway maintenance.

This year’s event involved over 50 participants representing 11 state DOTs, 5 universities and two leading tech companies: Kratos Defense and DeAngelo Contracting Services. They shared lessons learned, research updates, and use cases for technologies such as:

• Autonomous pavement crack repair trucks
• Robotic snowplows
• Truck-mounted impact attenuators (used on high-risk road sites to increase safety from collisions)
• Traffic cone deployment robots
• Robotic dogs for bridge inspections and site surveillance

Minnesota DOT’s 4-mile closed test track was used for live demonstrations, including ride-alongs in both MnDOT’s automated snowplow and in Virginia Tech’s autonomous impact attenuator truck.

Thank you to all those who attended! We look forward to more collaborations in the future.

Learn more about the pooled fund and participants here.