EQUIPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
Mapping the new KR 800 is done on the machine with this control panel.
On the commercial side, larger zero-turn mowers equipped with software from Greenzie, or more industrial models like those from RC Mowers, are growing autonomous business for early-adopter landscaping businesses, sports field managers and municipalities.
Kress is introducing two new robotic mowers— one now and one“ coming soon”— in an attempt to further advance robotization for professional users. The KR 800 Cut and Go mower is coming to market first. It’ s a 40-inch machine that can be used on multiple job sites. It will be ready for sale in the spring of 2026. The company showed one image of a 60-inch autonomous mower, model KR 804, whose availability timing is to be announced. Location accuracy and safety are main focus points for Kress.
“ The reason I started with robots was a request by a client who spent three months of the year on his property vacationing,” said Carlos Teles, who owns Teles Landscaping, serving properties on Martha’ s Vineyard.“ The client asked me to explore robotic mowers to help maintain his 10 acres of manicured lawn.”
“ The biggest obstacle to robotics is the resistance of companies to change procedures,” said Joe Langton.“ Automation was a way for me to incentivize crews to go from three people to two people, and to focus more on the detail work that I usually couldn’ t get a supervisor to focus on. I now incentivize the detail, and I pay those two-person crews more money and have the redundant tasks done by the automation.
“ Our company has grown with automation because we’ ve been able to increase the other verticals that are very profitable in this industry by having the redundant task done by very predictable autonomous mowers,” he added.
“ We mow 28 times during the season on a typical commercial account,” said Todd Reinhart, Reinhart Landscaping in Illinois.“ If we can turn those 28 visits a season to 14 visits a season by having dedicated robot mowers on site, we think we can double the revenue per truck.”
Beyond labor efficiency, robots are helping landscape businesses find and retain new talent.“ We’ re getting people interested in robots, young people who don’ t look at landscaping as a career,” said Reinhart.“ All of a sudden, my son was running a lot of the robots and his friends started asking,‘ What is going on here? What are you doing?’ We’ re starting to see that through some gamification with the robots and with marketing, we’ re getting young talent and new customers.”
Said Brian Cormier, of R. P. Marzilli Landscaping in Cape Cod,“ Let’ s be honest, labor is scarce. We can drop off robots on our properties and upgrade existing clients to more expert workers. They can grow in their careers, earn more money and stay with us. It will be very helpful for our business.”
Each of the panelists, whether discussing battery-powered equipment or autonomous mowers, said that property owners are beginning to request non-gas-powered equipment. Most prefer the quiet of battery-powered equipment. Some want the environmental benefits. And some are finding they just love to watch robots.
“ Once you deploy these dedicated robots to a site, the customers will never let those leave the site,” said Reinhart.“ If you do junior highs or grade schools, they’ ll name the mowers. They’ ll want you to wrap them in different colors. They glue googly eyes and action figures on top of the mowers. They adopt them as people.”
Glenn Hansen is editor of OPE +, sister publication to SportsField Management magazine. sportsfieldmanagementonline. com May 2025 | SportsField Management
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