It typically takes Ron White around two hours to line one of the fields at Perrysburg Soccer Club.
It takes Yellow Jack just 22 minutes.
Admittedly, the former is a mere human and the latter is a robot programmed to do the job. With around 20 fields to line, cut, and upon which to place goals, White explained the time-saving device has had a massive impact on his job.
“This thing has alleviated me so much,” he said. “Now all I’ve got to do is, whatever field, I can tap on the iPad, and the robot will go there and start painting.”
While the arrival of robotic replacements has met fierce resistance in other industries, athletic groundskeepers like White are celebrating.
Until the last decade, groundskeepers have had to devote long hours to meticulously lining fields. The endeavor is more complicated than it sounds. Since any inconsistency can be the difference in a game, precision is at a premium. And if the original lines are lost, measuring out the corners and dimension again can be an even more arduous task.
“When I started, there was talk about let’s get a robot, but I’m kind of old school like, ‘No, let me do this first, and if I need a robot, I’ll let you know,’” White said. “But halfway through, I was like, ‘Robot, you say?’ So, when they purchased one, and I got to operating one, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, we can work with this.’”
The robot in question comes from a company called TurfTank that is expanding its foothold across the country.
In the Toledo area, White and Perrysburg Soccer Club are not alone in their adoption of the company. Maumee Valley Country Day and Otsego High School have joined them.
Scott Alexander, who maintains Otsego’s athletic facilities, said he uses TurfTank for their football, soccer, baseball, softball, and lacrosse fields.
Their football field that once took four people eight hours of work to line now takes one person and the robot less than three hours.
“Even with limited computer knowledge, once the field is set up, once you get it exactly where you want it configuration-wise, it’s just a matter of making sure the robot always has paint in it and pushing a few buttons to help get it started,” Alexander said. “Now I devote that time to other parts of the ground that need attention.”
He has even used it for customized lettering or logo outlines on the field, although he still relies on humans to actually fill in the coloring more efficiently.
TurfTank generally operates via leasing rather than purchasing the robot, but CEO Mikkel Jacobsen noted nearly all of their users have continued to renew their subscriptions upon expiration.
The time saved does, however, come at a financial cost, as the subscription costs around $6,000.
For Jacobsen, the benefits go beyond saving labor hours. It improves consistency, saves paint, and keeps groundskeepers from spending too long under the summer sun.
“The benefit of the robot is you get world-class lines, the best you can get, and you don’t have to be a huge organization,” he said. “As a robot sprays out the paint, you save about 50 percent of the paint because it’s all under control.”
At Monroe Jefferson High School in Michigan, when the entire grounds crew was sick during the week leading up to their homecoming football game, athletic director Alyssa Eppler was able to use the TurfTank to cover for them.
Despite assurances from Eppler, Jacobsen, and groundskeepers like White and Alexander that the robot is a tool to assist humans rather than replace them, it is hard to imagine that athletic programs will be able to justify paying both the salaries of existing grounds crews and the subscription fee for a robot.
With more than 3,500 subscribers worldwide and a growing user base, however, enough places have been willing to foot that bill for the time being.
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