Case Study: Northstar Robotics achieves 25% faster development and rapid autonomous deployments with Ubuntu

Northstar Robotics helps solve the off-highway labour shortage with Ubuntu-driven, autonomous machines

Northstar Robotics, a Canadian startup founded in 2016, builds autonomous systems to augment heavy machinery and address North America’s labour shortage for seasonal, hazardous tasks like snow removal and farming. The company needed an open, modifiable, stable and GPU-compatible operating system that would let it move quickly from development to production while operating reliably in extreme conditions (as cold as −40°C).

Northstar standardised on Ubuntu (Ubuntu 16.04 on NVIDIA Jetson TX2, and 16.04/18.04 in development), allowing the same tools and interface across dev and vehicles. That choice cut development time by 25%, supported a successful pilot of an autonomous runway snowplough at Winnipeg Richardson International Airport in October 2018, eliminated OS stability issues, eased recruitment, and paved the way for broader snow‑removal and agricultural deployments.

Northstar Robotics

Shawn Schaerer

Chief Executive Officer