ISTVS

09/15/2026

September 29th 2026 is last day to register for conference https://www.istvs.org/newswire/istvs-2026-updates

09/08/2026

ISTVS Mississippi State University Student Chapter Visits U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Mobility Systems Branch
May 11, 2026

The Mississippi State University (MSU) Student Chapter of the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems (ISTVS) recently visited the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory (GSL), with a focus on the Mobility Systems Branch. The visit provided students with a unique opportunity to explore the real-world challenges and technologies associated with military ground mobility and terrain–vehicle interaction.

Bohumir Jelinek also highlighted the educational value of the visit and the importance of collaboration between academia and government research organizations:

“Our visit to the U.S. Army Corps ERDC, organized by Ethan Salmon, the advisor of the MSU Student Chapter of the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems (ISTVS), in collaboration with ERDC, gave MSU students and educators a truly unique opportunity to observe the terramechanics testing facilities and to learn about the real-world problems the ERDC Mobility Research Team is solving. Exposure to the vehicles that ERDC contributed to through development and testing, including the Lunar Rover and Marsh Screw Amphibian Craft, also provided insight into the rich history of ERDC’s work. The preparation of the visit, guide, and presentations by Dr. Brad Hansen, Dr. Varsha Swamy, and the ERDC Mobility Research Team members were especially appreciated.”

Ethan Salmon added:

“As the advisor to the MSU ISTVS Student Chapter, I’m grateful to the team at ERDC for coordinating the tour. I think it is very beneficial for students to see terramechanics in real-world application.”

MSU ISTVS Student Chapter

The visit reflects the continued mission of ISTVS to foster student engagement, strengthen collaboration between academia and government laboratories, and inspire the next generation of researchers and engineers working in terrain–vehicle systems and off-road mobility.

09/01/2026

56th ISTVS Conference Updates – Pretoria, South Africa
11–15 October 2026
The 56th Conference of the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems (ISTVS) will be held from 11–15 October 2026 in Pretoria, South Africa. The conference will bring together researchers, engineers, industry professionals, and students from across the world to discuss the latest advances in terramechanics, off-road mobility, terrain characterization, vehicle dynamics, and related technologies.

Conference Schedule and Abstracts
Key dates, an overview of the conference schedule, and the list of accepted abstracts are available on the conference website: https://2026.istvs.org/schedule

Conference Schedule and Abstracts
A total of 46 abstracts have been accepted for presentation at the conference. The list of abstracts is available at https://2026.istvs.org/schedule

Full Paper Submission
Full papers are due 15 May. In an effort to get high-quality reviews on the papers, so that the proceedings could be properly indexed for the benefit of the authors, we will not extend this deadline. We will, however, not close the submission system and will endeavour to have all submitted papers reviewed, but the technical committee cannot guarantee that reviews on late submissions will be in time for the papers to be included in the proceedings.

Registration
Early Bird registration is open until 15 June and can be accessed at: https://2026.istvs.org/conference/registration

Early bird registration, until 15 June, offers a significant discount of 100 Euro compared to the standard registration that will apply after 15 June.

Conference Registration

The organisers are fully aware of the situation in the world that may influence travel arrangements but this will be an in-person conference and attendees should register with this in mind. In any case, the conference will not be converted to a fully fledged hybrid event. We will, however, keep monitoring the situation

Optional Activities
The conference organizers are planning several optional activities for attendees and accompanying guests, including:

Accompanying Persons Program
Excursions and cultural activities around Pretoria and the Tshwane region.

Visit Tshwane Tourism Information

Post-Conference Safari
A one-day safari excursion to a nearby game reserve following the conference.

Pre-Conference Workshop
A full-day workshop on Sunday, 11 October 2026, featuring technical lectures and hands-on tutorials from leading experts in vehicle dynamics and terramechanics.

Attendees interested in any optional activities may indicate their interest during registration.

Pre-Conference Workshop
Sunday, 11 October 2026
The pre-conference workshop will combine technical presentations with practical simulation tutorials focused on off-road vehicle dynamics and terrain interaction modeling.

Workshop Topics and Presenters
The workshop will consist of technical presentations interwoven with hands-on tutorial and will include the following:

· Simulation and validation of off-road vehicle Dynamics: presented by Professor Schalk Els and members of the Vehicle Dynamics Group (VDG) at the University of Pretoria

· Hands-on tutorial where attendees will perform multibody dynamics simulations of an off-road vehicle using MATLAB, Simulink, and Simscape: presented by Steve Miller from Mathworks.

· Terramechanics and vehicle-soil terrain interaction measurement and modelling: presented by Professor Corina Sandu from Virginia Tech

· Hands-on tutorial where attendees will perform soft soil interaction simulation using CMLabs Simulations inc. VORTEX Studio software: presented by Etienne Lareau from CMLabs

If you are potentially interested in any of these activities, you can indicate this during registration, and we will get in touch for further arrangements.

Technical Tour
Tuesday, 13 October 2026
The technical tour will take place on Tuesday 13 October at Gerotek Test Facilities where we will entertain you with demonstrations including a drawbar pull test in the sand trough, a truck ride into the mountainous rough track, a large tyre testing demonstration, and several other activities.

The technical tour day will conclude with the first-ever ISTVS student competition, developed by the founder members: University of Pretoria, Mississippi State University, and Virginia Tech.

ISTVS Student Wheel Design Competition
Tuesday, 13 October 2026
Ignite the competitive drive of your engineering students by sharing the 2026 ISTVS Student Wheel Design Competition, hosted at the University of Pretoria alongside the 56th ISTVS Conference. This challenge pushes undergraduate and graduate teams to apply advanced terramechanics principles by engineering a 3D-printable wheel optimised for maximum traction. Students must bridge the gap between theory and application by determining the ideal angular velocity required to maximise drawbar pull. The competition organisers will manufacture all submitted designs and evaluate them through systematic empirical testing in a controlled sand soil bin under identical load conditions.

Testing rig developed at the University of Pretoria, South Africa for the competition

We strongly encourage our members to champion this initiative within their research groups and ensure their students register by the approaching 15 May 2026 deadline. Overall performance will be evaluated based on maximum drawbar pull and predictive accuracy, supported by a comprehensive technical design report and a formal presentation. In-person attendance at the conference is not required, as teams unable to attend can submit a recorded presentation. Final submissions are due by 25 September 2026.

The official rulebook and required materials are available on this Google Drive , and further technical inquiries can be directed to Andries Peenze at [email protected].

More information on this is a previous announcement ISTVS Student Wheel Design Competition

ISTVS 2026 | October 11-15, 2026 | Pretoria, South Africa

09/01/2026

ISTVS Engages in International Advances in Space Robotics and Lunar Terramechanics

ISTVS President Lutz Richter, upon invitation, attended the opening event of the InnoHK Hong Kong Space Robotics & Energy Centre at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) on April 28–29. The new research and innovation hub represents a major step forward in space robotics development in Hong Kong.

A flagship project of the centre is the Hong Kong Operations Robot, which has been selected for the Chang’e 8 lunar landing mission of China, currently planned for launch in 2029. While the 100 kg system appears to be a relatively compact four-wheeled rover, it integrates a highly advanced dual-armed humanoid robotic torso. This configuration is intended to demonstrate complex in-situ manipulation tasks on the lunar surface, including the ability to perform electric recharging operations for other rover assets operating within the same mission architecture.

In parallel, the 2026 edition of the Space Resources Week, organized by the European Space Agency (ESA), took place in Luxembourg during the week of May 4. The event featured an extensive set of presentations focused on systems and processes for handling and sorting granular materials on the Moon. These contributions drew heavily from principles of geotechnics, terramechanics, and the design of tools and implements for extraterrestrial surface operations.

These developments are situated within a rapidly expanding global effort toward lunar exploration and resource utilization. The recent crewed lunar flyby mission Artemis II by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) further underscores the accelerating return of human and robotic activity to the Moon, offering a preview of future sustained operations on the lunar surface.

These international activities align strongly with the mission of ISTVS. The Society has historically contributed to early lunar rover development and, over the past two decades, has seen a growing body of research in lunar and planetary terramechanics presented at its conferences and published in the Journal of Terramechanics. The continued expansion of space-related research within ISTVS reflects its evolving role in supporting mobility science beyond Earth, particularly in the context of extraterrestrial terrain interaction and resource utilization.

08/10/2026

Istvs hosts a digital event series once a month where members can host a live seminar on their area of expertise. DES is archived as a YouTube video providing an excellent tool to advertise and inform other members. Please contact prof. varsha swamy [email protected] if interested

The ISTVS welcomes you to a free digital event series — alternating informal student-led research seminars and terramechanics bites by established researchers.

08/08/2026

This is a friendly reminder that our upcoming conference in South Africa will be held from October 11th to October 15th. We are pleased to include a student competition as part of the event and encourage everyone to attend. If you are affiliated with a student organization, there is still time to submit an entry; we look forward to seeing you there.

ISTVS 2026 | October 11-15, 2026 | Pretoria, South Africa

03/04/2026

The ISTVS members at the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) at Mississippi State University (MSU) have now posted the YADE Discrete Element Model (DEM) soil-wheel-box simulator online:
https://github.com/Mississippi-State-University-OTM/Yade-DEM-Wheel-Soil-Simulator
This model will support the upcoming student competition in South Africa at the University of Pretoria in October 2026. The competition is open to all universities with ISTVS members. The student competition focuses on rapid prototyping of a small plastic tire and achieving the best performance in a test bin. The simulation supports efforts to predict the measured performance of various tread configurations.

03/03/2026

Visit to the University of Defense (Czech Republic) Brno as part of an outreach program with the Center of Advanced Vehicular Studies (CAVS), Mississippi State University.

03/03/2026

Single wheel tire tester constant slip

02/27/2026

Call for Papers
ISTVS 2026 | October 11-15, 2026 | Pretoria, South Africa

ISTVS 2026, the 56th Conference of the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems welcomes original and previously unpublished research and review papers describing results of research which are relevant to the conference topics and to terrain-vehicle systems.

Interested authors are invited to submit an abstract between 16 February and 15 March, 2026.

Abstracts must be under 1800 characters and must emphasize the objectives and results.

Authors may choose between the following two types of submissions: full paper or abstract-only.

For either type of submission, authors can choose to do an oral presentation at the conference or submit a poster for the conference poster session. At least one of the authors must attend the conference for either.

Abstract review
All abstracts will be reviewed by the conference Editorial Committee. The corresponding author will be notified of abstract acceptance by 13 April, 2026.

Full paper submissions
After abstract acceptance, authors submitting a full paper must make their submission by 15 May, 2026. Each full paper will be subject to peer review by the conference Scientific Committee. Each paper will be either accepted, accepted with revisions or rejected; authors will be notified by 1 July, 2026. If a revision is requested, the revised paper must be submitted by 2 August, 2026.

All accepted submissions of either abstract-only or full-paper type will be included in the conference program and will be published in the conference proceedings, on the condition that at least one author attend the conference to present the work. Only full papers will be assigned a DOI and will have a permanent individual page on the conference website.

Key dates
Key dates are listed here.

Technical tracks
The conference includes the following thematic tracks:

Innovative concepts in tires, wheels, tracks, and other ground contact elements

Propulsion systems and vehicle electrification

Creative terrain mechanical characterization and deformation modeling

Advances in off-road mobility modeling

Off-road autonomy, robotics and navigation

Planetary terramechanics

New instrumentation and analysis methods in terramechanics testing

Climate impacts on terrain, terramechanics, and off-road vehicles

Off-road vehicle dynamics and control, including advanced driver assist and collision prevention systems

International collaborations

Submission platform
As in previous years, the conference submission platform is EasyChair. If you’ve participated in a recent ISTVS conference or have used EasyChair in the past, you will be able to log in with your existing account. If you’re new to ISTVS conferences, use the Create an account link on the login page below to get started.

Access the ISTVS 2026 EasyChair site here: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=istvs2026

Submission guidelines
Make sure that the authors you list in the EasyChair form are the same as in your full paper and/or poster, and in the same order.

Ensure the authors’ affiliations match across all submissions and forms.

If at any time you need to make changes to the list of authors, please promptly notify the conference organizers.

If the same authors appear in multiple submissions, please write the authors' names and affiliations in the same way, for all submissions (both in EasyChair and in the papers/posters).

If the Latin alphabet is not your native alphabet, please make sure that you use the same transliteration for your name across all submissions.

If at any time you wish to change your submission type (abstract-only vs full paper) or change your presentation type (oral presentation vs poster session), please promptly notify the conference organizers.

Templates for submissions
Abstract
No template is required to submit your abstract. Submission is done directly on the EasyChair submission platform.

Full paper
Full paper templates and submission instructions will be updated as they become available.

Submission of new papers for ISTVS2026 (56th Conference of the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems) is open.