Divot Fixing Robot for Golf Courses

[Cat5Can]

I love technology and can see how this would be developed. However at a couple of places I've played we do a few nights of members doing divots and pitch marks with a curry and beer for our troubles. Probably cheaper than a robot .

Haha yes this sounds great

 

[Cat5Can]

I love the idea. My first thought is how long would a club need to own the robot for it to be worth their initial investment?

Hi there,
Thanks for joining the conversation

It really depends on the course and how much they are spending on fixing divots at the moment.

For some clubs, it would be worth their initial investment immediately (i have heard of clubs spending 15k-30k a year on paying people to fix divots)

But in some cases where divots are fixed voluntarily i will never be worth the investment

What do you think about this?

 

[Cat5Can]

I think the idea has potential (I can't see the video as the link doesn't work).
However, my main concern is that we don't ant it to make golfers lazy. Divots should be repaired straight away. For some, if they know a club has one of these they may think "sod it" and leave it for the machine to do in the evening or early morning. That's no help for the golfers that are following them.
Practicality wise, cost, reliability and effectiveness are the big things in this. Most UK clubs don't have money to burn so it has to be cost effective for them.

Hi there,

Thanks for your reply this is great.

Yes is agree Golfers should sort out there divots there and then. But we all know this isn't the case.

Do you think UK clubs spend any money on fixing divots each year?

What if the robot was able to carry out another task such as ball collection on the driving range or snack delivery on the course?

Would this make the robot more attractive to clubs?

Cheers

 

[jim8flog]

Hi there,
Thanks for joining the conversation

It really depends on the course and how much they are spending on fixing divots at the moment.

For some clubs, it would be worth their initial investment immediately (i have heard of clubs spending 15k-30k a year on paying people to fix divots)

But in some cases where divots are fixed voluntarily i will never be worth the investment

What do you think about this?

Put simply at a club like ours there would (probably) never be enough money in the coffers for us to consider such a machine as a priority over other course update and maintenance requirements. We do spend a lot on machinery (and probably have a lot of gear which other courses do not have) but each item is carefully considered by the Course Manager before putting forward to the directors a case for buying it.

One of the things you have said is leave it out a night. That would be a no no here due to high risk of theft or vandalism. All machinery goes in to a well secured compound before the course closes.

 

[Cat5Can]

My thoughts are related to size. To replace divots on a single hole of our course takes at least two large buckets of sand/seed mix. To do a full 18 hole course you would require a large machine if not many smaller machines. How often do you envisage the use of the machine? Weekly, fortnightly or more per hole? With wide fairways a machine would have to identify divots over an area of about 6,000 sq yds per hole which is 0.8 Acre. That's a lot of grass to survey!

Interesting

I was thinking of having a small silo where the robot could refill when needed. I also think after a few days/weeks of the robot going out fixing the divots every night the number of divots will drop overall and as a result less sand/seed mix needed.

There will be maintenance involved but I haven't yet figured out how regularly this will be...

Also yes there would be a a lot of ground to cover I agree

Is there anything else you think I should know ?

Cheers

 

[Crow]

The local kids slinging it in the pond by the 12th tee?

 

[Robster59]

I'd agree that there is no way you could have this going out unattended at night. Once people knew a club had this, someone would go out to steal it either for the money or just the fun. Or they may just decide to wreck it as that is the nature of some people.
As has been pointed out, many clubs (including ours) do have volunteers who go out and carry out repairs to the fairways on a voluntary basis.
However, in principle I like the idea and if we look at the benefits...

• It helps to maintain the course in good order.
• It allows green staff to get on with other important work on the course.
• A well maintained course helps clubs maintain members and bring in more visitors.

I do think the market is at the more affluent clubs.

 

[Cat5Can]

T

I guess par 3’s don’t come into it, and for par 4’s its primarily just the landing zone for the tee shot, same for par 5 but includes the lay-up zone but less emphasis/time on where 2nd shot is hit from given the longer/fairway clubs being used. Overall it all greatly reduces the area where the majority of divots will be

edit: There’s a course here that doesn’t let players refill divots and I wondered how staff found the time to get round each day, but realised when you take out par 3’s and focus on the landing zones it massively reduces the task

Hi There,

This is great! we definitely had not considered the science to where divots are usually made.

Why would a course not allow players to refill divots?

Why is there no divots are par 3's ? even chipping onto the green?

Thanks for your reply

 

[Cat5Can]

What if it gets stuck in a ditch or something, would it dial home and ask for help? I't seems to me that although you could build this machine, the ongoing maintenance and support would make it overly expensive. I'd guess it would also discourage members from replacing divots as they'll think the robot will do it.

Hi there thanks for your reply.

If it did happen to get stuck we could remotely access them to drive the robot out or organize on the ground people to assist.

Yes, there will be maintenance involved, but it should be an awful lot if we can make a robust machine.

Maybe members might take a more relaxed approach to fixing there own divots.

Is there anything else I should consider?

Cheers

 

[Cat5Can]

Put simply at a club like ours there would (probably) never be enough money in the coffers for us to consider such a machine as a priority over other course update and maintenance requirements. We do spend a lot on machinery (and probably have a lot of gear which other courses do not have) but each item is carefully considered by the Course Manager before putting forward to the directors a case for buying it.

One of the things you have said is leave it out a night. That would be a no no here due to high risk of theft or vandalism. All machinery goes in to a well secured compound before the course closes.

Hi this is very helpful.

Do you think is the robot could work on any other tasks around the course? ie ball collection on driving range, aeration/ scarification, spreading fertilzier or grass seed?

Your right theft or vandalism is something we have to consider. The robot is fitted with cameras that could share footage of antisocial behaviour as well as Gps tracking if the robot was stolen and fitted with an alarm.

Many Thanks

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Interesting

I was thinking of having a small silo where the robot could refill when needed. I also think after a few days/weeks of the robot going out fixing the divots every night the number of divots will drop overall and as a result less sand/seed mix needed.

There will be maintenance involved but I haven't yet figured out how regularly this will be...

Also yes there would be a a lot of ground to cover I agree

Is there anything else you think I should know ?

Cheers

Having done divot evenings at my club( sandwiches provided) I know how much divot mix we have gone through and still not satisfied everyone. So although you say you could have a silo, the divot robot would need to be quite substantial to carry enough mix even just for 1 hole at a time. Then you have the added problem of bare scrapes, mud patches and other wearing areas that might at first look to be a divot or in need of seed.
There is also the added problem of not wasting the mix throuh it seeding itself whilst in storage, which can also happen quite quickly with divot bags from the trolley during normal times.

I would probably try to develop it as far as you can, then sell the idea to one of the machinery companies. Something like this might be more favourably looked at as part of a greens equipment lease package rather than a 1 off sale from yourself.
I do still think it's something that whilst good on paper will be an expensive toy and ultimately a waste of money..sorry

 

[Cat5Can]

The local kids slinging it in the pond by the 12th tee?

Haha we will have to make sure the robot takes swimming lesson before going to work

 

[clubchamp98]

Hi there, I really appreciate your detailed reply.

The video link should be working now

I would put the sand mix into the divot based on the size of the divot. Have a look at the video the bigger the red box around the divot the more sand that will be released.

It wouldn't be that wide maybe like 2 for at most.

I would have sensors built in that if it got too close to a person, animal or object it would stop immediately.

Although the robot its self will be very quiet while operating (because of its electric motor) I was thinking about having it operate at night time to it cause the least disruption. What do you think about this?

Eventually, it would be able to identify the difference between greens, tees, fairways etc using onboard cameras and GPS. But initially, to test the robot I would probably have to manually set its boundaries on the course.

Yes fully electric and environmentally friendly. It would run on around 100€ of electricity a year.

I really appreciate your time, I agree costs are my biggest concern. I think we can make it robust enough but let's see.

Let me know what you think about my replies to your questions.

Cheers

Two foot wide ? Would take a lot of passes to do one fairway.
golfers are very fickle and some don’t like movement even far away in their eye line.
At night is a good idea but would need infrared sensors or you will find it in the ditch come morning.
Would a battery that could last all night be heavy and expensive?
This would add to the weight and on soft ground rut or even get stuck, so maybe a track laying power train will be nessesary.
All adds up to a great idea , I hope you get it off the ground.
Nice to see some innovation.
Are there any grants you can access to help?

 

[jim8flog]

Hi this is very helpful.

Do you think is the robot could work on any other tasks around the course? ie ball collection on driving range, aeration/ scarification, spreading fertilzier or grass seed?

Your right theft or vandalism is something we have to consider. The robot is fitted with cameras that could share footage of antisocial behaviour as well as Gps tracking if the robot was stolen and fitted with an alarm.

Many Thanks

Not in order

Aeration/scarification takes a fairly heavy duty machine (6" to 10" hollow tines removing cores of compacted soil) and it something that needs to be done very quickly if you are going to get out of a golfers way. We would normally do several greens and approaches in one day with dedicated equipment. Every tee would be done in less than a day. We also do several fairways a day. If the timing is going to be right for regrowth etc there is limited time for this. We do all of our August maintenance programme of this type in less than a week.

Two foot wide as ball collector - way to slow! Ours are about 15 foot wide and done at reasonable speed behind a vehicle. We already have the vehicles as would many others and the collection attachments do not cost a lot of money. You also have to consider weight. I do not know how many balls are collected in each tray but I am certainly not strong enough to pick up one the 3 trays on each each collector on my own.

 

[Ross61]

Not in order

Aeration/scarification takes a fairly heavy duty machine (6" to 10" hollow tines removing cores of compacted soil) and it something that needs to be done very quickly if you are going to get out of a golfers way. We would normally do several greens and approaches in one day with dedicated equipment. Every tee would be done in less than a day. We also do several fairways a day. If the timing is going to be right for regrowth etc there is limited time for this. We do all of our August maintenance programme of this type in less than a week.

Two foot wide as ball collector - way to slow! Ours are about 15 foot wide and done at reasonable speed behind a vehicle. We already have the vehicles as would many others and the collection attachments do not cost a lot of money. You also have to consider weight. I do not know how many balls are collected in each tray but I am certainly not strong enough to pick up one the 3 trays on each each collector on my own.

There is a robot ball collector on the range at Bedfordshire golf club. It is not that big and looks like an oversized robot lawn mower. It fills up and then trundles off to a sort of pit area to unload then off it goes again. How efficient it is I don’t know as I have only been once.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

There is a robot ball collector on the range at Bedfordshire golf club. It is not that big and looks like an oversized robot lawn mower. It fills up and then trundles off to a sort of pit area to unload then off it goes again. How efficient it is I don’t know as I have only been once.

Similar to Silvermere which has a couple that does the same thing. It is interesting to see it trundle round, avoiding the flags etc and then recognising the ball and effectively driving over it to scoop it up but after a while I forget it is there and when I do look back it is usually nowhere near where I last saw it and it has trundled a fair distance away although it never seems to go on what seems like a logical route to me

 

[Sekiro]

I think the idea in theory is great, but in implementation I don’t think its fully cooked or even feasible.

Firstly, I’d look to dial it back a bit, far too many people go off on a crusade with a new invention but get caught up in the process without going through the appropriate stage gates to make sure it’s even viable.

I feel there’s a level of market research required before you continue any further, it’s great that you can design bespoke software to analyse the ground and identify divots, construct a state-of-the-art robotic machine with cameras and sensors that can navigate all terrain, design a docking/refilling station but the costs to get this even into a prototyPE stage is going to be huge. Once you factor in development costs, overheads, marketing, components, construction, support and maintenance (to name but a few) what’s the margin your looking at to be even making a profit? Then you need to compare that V.s what the current costs are to maintain grounds annually and then consider the available capital of clubs and what % of that they would be happy to invest in a product like this (you’ll also need some sort of maintenance/servicing agreement covering the robot for mechanical failures/software updates).

I don’t want to be a joy-kill as I think it seems like a great idea but I think you are trying to run before you can even crawl (I could be wrong here and you might have already secured enough to cover all these costs from investors).

In the spirit of not coming across totally negative;-
For some reason I feel the divot identification technology would be well placed in a drone that is able to scan each hole/course from the air, when a divot is identified it would then be sent back and queued on the repair robot so it can effectively plan its route to maximise effectiveness and minimise downtime (refilling/recharging) food for thought, as someone who already works in the industry my advice would be utilise as much existing technology as possible because someone else has already taken the hit on design and development, additionally there are a lot of funding bodies to support SMEs which could help with initial cash flow (check out innovate UK for example).

Good luck with your endeavour.

 

[CliveW]

I guess par 3’s don’t come into it, and for par 4’s its primarily just the landing zone for the tee shot, same for par 5 but includes the lay-up zone but less emphasis/time on where 2nd shot is hit from given the longer/fairway clubs being used. Overall it all greatly reduces the area where the majority of divots will be

edit: There’s a course here that doesn’t let players refill divots and I wondered how staff found the time to get round each day, but realised when you take out par 3’s and focus on the landing zones it massively reduces the task

I based my calculations on what you are saying, not the whole course. Par 3 tees will also need divots repaired.

 

[Cat5Can]

I'd agree that there is no way you could have this going out unattended at night. Once people knew a club had this, someone would go out to steal it either for the money or just the fun. Or they may just decide to wreck it as that is the nature of some people.
As has been pointed out, many clubs (including ours) do have volunteers who go out and carry out repairs to the fairways on a voluntary basis.
However, in principle I like the idea and if we look at the benefits...

• It helps to maintain the course in good order.
• It allows green staff to get on with other important work on the course.
• A well maintained course helps clubs maintain members and bring in more visitors.

I do think the market is at the more affluent clubs.

Hi There,

Thanks, these are great points to consider.

I think you're right. This solution maybe be more suited to more affluent clubs, until we can get the cost down significantly for other courses

Many thanks

 

[Cat5Can]

Two foot wide ? Would take a lot of passes to do one fairway.
golfers are very fickle and some don’t like movement even far away in their eye line.
At night is a good idea but would need infrared sensors or you will find it in the ditch come morning.
Would a battery that could last all night be heavy and expensive?
This would add to the weight and on soft ground rut or even get stuck, so maybe a track laying power train will be nessesary.
All adds up to a great idea , I hope you get it off the ground.
Nice to see some innovation.
Are there any grants you can access to help?

Hi There,

Thank for your Reply.

The idea would be the robot would be operated during times when no one is playing, for night time usage just an LED light and GPS would be sufficient.

The battery life could be an issue I might have to recharge during the night.

Yes We were thinking about using Track rather than wheels.

Thanks for all your feedback. Will look into grants