Autonomous Mowers (driverless)

[IndyBonzo]

Saw this on the FB.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/sYn8HhZFcUNVGSAD/?mibextid=QwDbR1

Probably not the first, and no surprise these are here.

Pretty cool IMO.

Hope jobs are not lost.  Maybe this frees crews up to do more significant maintenance.  But prob not.

Would someone still have to follow along to send the mowers into timeout to let golfers play through?

And of course some idiots would use the mowers for target practice.   If I was a course owner and saw that … bad days for the offending golfers.   Ha. 

[fixyurdivot]

Yes, an interesting application.  I started a similar thread on this awhile back and some courses that have already begun using automated range ball retrievers. I also subsequently found a study by the USGA and another research firm on the subject but never followed up with it in the thread.

I suspect we'll see more and more courses and ranges doing pilot study/testing to see how this might help the bottom-line.

[bama no 1]

IMHO it will be the wave of the future.  Golf courses currently have a hard time finding maintenance workers to complete tasks.  I would also suspect that most of the mowing would occur at night as to not to impact golfing during the day.

 

[archeryonly]

The autonomous mowers are great. I just hope they still have humans doing it when I retire. I was looking forward to mowing a golf  courses as a retirement job. 

[edkrisiak]

But can it fix ball marks on the green? . They look great and I bet VERY expensive compared to the low wages paid for people who cut the fairways.

[fixyurdivot]

1 hour ago, archeryonly said:

The autonomous mowers are great. I just hope they still have humans doing it when I retire. I was looking forward to mowing a golf  courses as a retirement job. 

Funny, I had that same thought... until seeing what time these folks head out to start work .

2 hours ago, bama no 1 said:

IMHO it will be the wave of the future.  Golf courses currently have a hard time finding maintenance workers to complete tasks.  I would also suspect that most of the mowing would occur at night as to not to impact golfing during the day.

 

I think many local climates would limit night time operations (too damp/wet).  

[Hacker60521]

@IndyBonzo thanks for sharing. I’ve always believed that automation works best for highly repetitive tasks where very low skill levels are required. So I’m not sure if automated mowers on golf courses will become mainstream because there is still some judgment needed by the operator. Fairways would be “easy” but thinking about the various cuts, obstacles, etc if you look at the entire course, it’s more challenging. But this will be interesting as the tech evolves and we get some great blooper videos 

 

Anecdotally, a church near where I live tried to use automated mowers. Didn’t go so well. One was found wandering on a four lane road adjacent to the property, and another supposedly ran into someone.

Edited August 13 by Hacker60521

[B_Cdn]

As stated in many replies, one of the largest challenges courses face in my area is finding workers to do the work.  freeing up a small staff from mowing chores so they can focus on other work will be a huge help.  

[JB2334]

While I wouldn't want to put anyone out of work, it seems like courses have a hard enough time hiring and keeping grounds maintenance staff. They also apparently don't work early in the morning anymore, because I often see grass being mowed in the middle of the day while people are playing.

I think tee boxes, greens, and the areas adjacent to them should be handled by professionals - but if autonomous mowers can cut fairways and rough early in the morning, I think you would see courses in better shape in the long run.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

The first golf course to use them was down in Florida on a par three course. They had to purchase 16 of them to get the job done. Granted these were the smaller units. But the maintenance crew still had to come out to each unit in the morning to clean debris from under the units. Blow them off and clean the sensors. The mowers ran for two to three hours on a charge and took another hour to recharge. It made no sense to me. Plus, the blades were a set of about 6 or 8 razor blades on a rotating disc. Thet were actually the size of a razor you would shave with. One twig and they are history. 

Obviously, technology is different with bigger units, but I still think it would be hard pressed to keep up with a guy on a mower with an 10-foot-wide deck.