The 55th Conference of the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems (ISTVS 2025) took place in Lebanon, New Hampshire, from October 6–9, 2025.

The event provided an exciting platform to showcase and explore the latest scientific and technological advancements in vehicle–terrain systems. It brought together experts from diverse fields—including mechanical engineering, vehicle and machine design, mechatronics, automation, soil science, agriculture, and environmental engineering—alongside professionals from academia, industry, and government agencies where terramechanics plays a critical role.

Conference Website

Event Highlights

Pre-conference (Oct 6): Board of Directors Meeting, Algoryx Workshop (Tomas Berglund), and Ice Breaker Reception
Day 1 (Oct 7): Opening Ceremony (Lutz Richter and Ivan Beckman), Keynote Speech (Paul van Susante, Ph.D.), and Technical Sessions
Day 2 (Oct 8): Team O’Neil Tarmac Technical Tour and Autonomy Demonstrations at Ridge Runner
Day 3 (Oct 9): ISTVS Student Competition Announcement (Devin Chen and Chaitanya Sonalkar), Keynote Session (John Eylander, Ph.D.), Technical Sessions, and Closing Ceremony
Post-conference (Oct 10): Team O’Neil Rally School Tours in Dalton, NH, and an Autonomy Workshop featuring keynote and panel discussions (Tulga Ersal and Gaurav Pandey)

Event detailed schedule

Message from the ISTVS President

“Last week, the 55th conference of the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems (ISTVS) was held in beautiful New Hampshire in the US. A big thank you to all those who attended! This was the largest meeting we’ve had in more than 10 years, with more than 120 registered attendees from 15 countries.

Kudos to the local organizing team that prevailed despite some challenges along the way!

The venue was great, we had extremely stimulating discussions, and the circular tables in the session rooms made for close interaction and for that was way better than classroom or auditorium style seating.

As an important addition to the regular conference, the subject of off-road autonomy took center stage, with field demonstrations of related technologies and vehicles (along with some fun, the same day when we were treated to some rally driving lessons by Team O’Neil’s Rally School). For many of us, the dedicated Off-Road Autonomy Workshop, however, was a highlight to which stakeholders from the defense industry, the military, and academia were invited to discuss the state-of-the-art and remaining challenges in autonomous off-road mobility. Featured topics at the workshop were sensor suites, software architecture, the role of modeling and simulation to assist in the design of the autonomy software stack, and the related interplay with the vehicle mechanical design and vehicle-ground interaction.

As president of ISTVS, I am extremely pleased that we have been able to take off-road vehicle autonomy onboard into the scope of our organization. Outcomes of the discussions and demonstrations will be captured in a peer-reviewed paper that will describe where we are on the topic, but importantly it will also showcase what remains to be done to get to an adequate maturity of autonomous off-road mobile platforms for the different use cases that are already evident.

Looking forward, planning is already under way for next year’s ISTVS conference, hosted by the University of Pretoria in South Africa. From October 11 to 14 next year we will meet there. So, mark your calendars!”

— Dr. Lutz Richter, President of ISTVS

Awards and recognition
We are delighted to congratulate Dr. Corina Sandu on being named an ISTVS Fellow for her outstanding contributions to terrain-vehicle systems research.

Additionally, Dr. Corina Sandu and Dr. Schalk Els were awarded the ISTVS Small Research Grant, recognizing their innovative work and support for advancing the field.

Acknowledgments
A big thank you to our conference chairs, Mr. Michael Parker and Dr. Sally Shoop, for leading an incredible lineup this year.

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Follow along as ISTVS celebrates innovation and collaboration, shaping the future of mobility on all terrains.