Dear ISTVS community,
We just welcomed 2026, and I am using this opportunity to wish you all a healthy, active, and rewarding year!
As ISTVS President, I am pleased with what we achieved last year.
We held an in-person symposium back in May that focused on terrain characterization and agricultural machinery. This led to us establishing a new ISTVS working group going forward, specifically on the subject of terrain testing instruments and the best practice of using them.
Then, in October, we enjoyed our annual main conference, which this time was attended by a record number of attendees, in beautiful New Hampshire, despite somewhat difficult circumstances affecting government employees. Off-road vehicle autonomy took center stage at the meeting and rightly so, as this capability will assume critical roles in terrain vehicle use cases, in particular in the military. As off-road autonomy is currently only an emerging technology, some of us are working on a peer-reviewed paper for submission to the Journal of Terramechanics, which is reviewing where we are with the topic and what research priorities should be, based on the dedicated workshop we held at the conference, along with several field demonstrations and papers.
ISTVS Digital Event Series 2025
During 2025, we have been continuing the online webinars that we call 'Digital Event Series', with great turnout and success.
Finally, we awarded another ISTVS-sponsored 'small research grant', which this time is dedicated to the systematic characterization of all-terrain tires. To cap off this eventful year, we received several more exciting proposals by the December 31 deadline after having reopened the grant solicitation.
Let's look forward to our in-person gathering in October at our 56th conference, this time held in the Pretoria area, in mid-October. The VDG team at the University of Pretoria, along with our General Secretariat and online team, is well along with preparations.
Again, all my best wishes to you all and your loved ones for 2026. Let's keep networking and collaborating the way we do, and let's build upon it for even stronger growth of our Society that is ISTVS!
Lutz
President ISTVS