Back in March of 2022, I wrote an article for the Green Section Record on autonomous mowers. At that time, few courses in North America were testing or using autonomous mowing technology. Now, over two and a half years later, robot mowers are still not widespread – but there are definitely more courses trying them out. The most common setup that I see during course consulting visits is one or two small mowers working around the clubhouse grounds or practice areas. While these mowers are small, they can be fairly productive.
If courses are able to have these small autonomous mowers working during play, they can be cutting grass for 12-16 hours per day depending on charge time. This can translate into acres of additional turf mowed with very little staff time required to manage the mowers, and the quality of cut seems acceptable to superintendents if the blades are regularly replaced. Some common feedback is that the machines can get stuck or have faults pop up, but a simple reset is usually all it takes to get them back up and running again. Widespread adoption of mowers like these may never happen, but courses that are using them are generally happy with the results. However, bigger units like autonomous fairway mowers have been much slower to arrive on the scene … until now.
A few weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see two FireFly Automatix AMP autonomous fairway mowers in action. The Northern California course I was visiting had recently purchased two of these machines. The all-electric, 100-inch, 5-gang reel mowers can mow over 20 acres of turf on a single charge. Recharging time is estimated at two and a half hours, so multiple mowing sessions can happen in a single day. The units rely on a cellular-based GPS navigation system and a proprietary app. Along with the purchase price, there is an annual fee that supports the GPS services.
I have to admit, it was fun to watch these machines work. Their mowing lines are laser straight and cleanup passes were very accurate. I didn’t think I would see the day when a robot could mow fairways accurately and safely, but I just did. Kudos to FireFly and the many other companies like them that are pushing the boundaries of technology in the golf course maintenance world.
West Region Agronomists:
Brian Whitlark, regional director – bwhitlark@usga.org
Cory Isom, senior consulting agronomist – cisom@usga.org