ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A satellite-guided robot is changing the game when it comes to painting athletic fields. Turf Tank uses GPS technology to paint sports field lines fast for all kinds of sports.
A Turf Tank robotic painter sits on four wheels, is powered with rechargeable batteries, loaded with field paint, connected to GPS, and can pretty much work unsupervised.
“It’s going to be set up with 25 to 30 satellite signals and the accuracy is going to be about a quarter of a centimeter, about an 1/8th of an inch every time he paints,” said Joe Valenti, regional manager for Turf Tank.
What would on average, take two people, about two hours to line a soccer field, this little green guy is doing it in less than 25 minutes.
“You just hit start. The robot will do everything, and you can do what you need to do,” said Valenti.
Turf Tank says it has 4,000 robots in action across the country lining 300,000 fields, from the NFL to high schools to youth baseball fields.
“Hamburg and Orchard Park and all the way to the Hamptons, all of New York state. Plattsburgh, Clarkstown, Albany, Utica, Syracuse and Buffalo. We are everywhere,” said Valenti.
Jaime Hammond and his crew at Rochester Regional Health Total Sports Experience in Gates have 14 outdoor fields to maintain and line every week. They started using Turf Tank four years ago.
“It saves us a lot of time. This year’s been rainy as well so having the ability to go out quick and line the field in ½ hour saves a lot of time versus waiting for the rain to stop. It's been huge for us,” said Hammond.
Hammond says it frees up staff to do other things and the unit has paid for itself.
“We always looking at being efficient in whatever we do. It made sense to do it,” said Hammond. “There is a lot of man-hour savings.”
Turf Tank robotic field painters are available for lease in an annual subscription program that includes the robot, GPS, paint and tech support. You can also purchase a Turf Tank system. Prices vary based on the package.
