TECHNOLOGY

By Robert Augsdorfer

With some sports field management crews running with just a few people or requiring crewmembers to perform other tasks around the grounds , someone , or something , needs to take care of field painting / line marking — or even mowing . As a result , robotic equipment has risen in popularity during the last few years , and sports field managers are increasingly deploying automated help in the form of robotic field painters / line markers and robotic mowers .

According to Jason Connor , director of commercial robotics at Husqvarna , robotics offer flexibility for field managers with skeleton crews .

“ With limited labor supply , robots offer flexibility in labor allocation ,” said Connor . “ Sports field managers can use their labor for tasks that are often overlooked or de-prioritized . With robots , sports field managers will also notice reduced wear and tear on the turf from heavy equipment and a quality of cut that is excellent and equal to , or better than , what they ’ ve experienced with traditional mowing . Additionally , sports field managers can customize the cut direction and cut pattern easily with robotic mowers .”

Drew Carl , director of marketing for TinyMobileRobots , a developer of robotic field painters / line markers , said that sports field managers are turning to robotic equipment to save time and resources .

“ Robots usually can paint a field – either for the first time or restriping it – in about 50 percent of the

Photo courtesy of TinyMobileRobots . time it would take an individual to do it ,” said Carl . “ For example , a soccer field can be painted in about 30 minutes with a robot . It also saves a lot in paint . The Photo courtesy of Husqvarna robot typically saves 50 percent or more in paint just because it paints the field more evenly and consistently .”

TinyMobileRobots started out with surveying in Europe and found a niche in the sports field market . The company recently started production in North America with two models .

“ We have two different models with the Sport , which is our smaller base model , and the Pro X , which is a little more robust ,” said Carl . “ We can paint all kinds of fields , ranging from soccer to American football , Gaelic sports and field events for track meets . Baseball and softball will be big for us with the spring and summer coming up .”

According to Carl , the robotics market has only just begun to scratch the surface in the sports field management industry . In addition to line marking , robotic field painters can perform more advanced work such as painting logos onto the field .

“ We ’ ve had quite a few private sport clubs use our products as a revenue generator ,” said Carl . “ They ’ ll go out and get sponsorships from local businesses and paint their logos on their field . But people can use the robots to paint their midfield logos or paint ‘ Home ’ and ‘ Away ’ next to the team benches and different things like that . It ’ s pretty easy once the template is loaded into the unit , and the robot knows where to put it using the tablet that comes with it .”

According to Jesse Pritchard , sports turf and grounds manager at University of Virginia , who utilizes a Turf Tank field painter , robotics have helped alleviate staffing and personnel issues .

“ Before , it could take a crew of four guys six to eight hours to get these fields painted , pulling strings , pulling

38 SportsField Management | April 2023 sportsfieldmanagementonline . com