Last week I attended one of Origin’s robotic line marking demo days at Loughborough Grammer School, at their Quorn’s playing fields.
The event was an all-day programme centred around three time slots to allow visiting turf professionals to see firsthand the machines in action.
Three members of Origin’s staff were on hand to talk, demonstrate and give information about the robots - Phil Denhurst, sales director for the North, alongside Simon Hughes and Glen Howard.
Glenn, who is manager for line marking robotics at Origin Community, gave a talk on the background of the company and then went on to speak on the two robotic line markers they sell. These are the small compact TinyLineMarker Sport selling at around £15,000 and the TinyLineMarker Pro X selling at £31,000.
The concept of these line markers is set around the products’ abilities to be 100% autonomous. The company boast that it produces fast, accurate and repeatable line markings, freeing up valuable time for grounds staff.
Both machines offer line widths between 5cm-10cm, paint capacity 10 Litres, and marking speed set at 4KPH with the battery life being about five hours.
The Pro X has been designed for use on larger multi-use sporting facilities having the ability to mark multiple configurations of sports pitches, logos and signage requirements via its software app.
After the introduction of the products we went outside to see the Pro X being put through its paces, with Simon Hughes showing how to set it up and use. Basically, you chose your pitch type, select the location on the satellite map where you want it to go, and press go. It is as simple as that. For the demo, a rugby pitch was being marked out from scratch along with a small sided football pitch.
First we had to drive the robot and identify the location of the rugby post sockets. Once logged in, you select size of pitch and then away you go. Initial marking times for a rugby pitch is 30 mins; football is 20 minutes; and a 8 lane 400 metre running track can be marked out in 105 mins. I genuinely found it to be a labour-saving device. For most initial markings of both rugby and football pitches by hand, these can usually take around 2-3 hours with two people. That is effectively 6 hours-plus work. Whereas the robot can do it in less than 30 minutes. And the lines will be perfectly straight.
Without doubt, these robotic line marking machines do an impressive job. So much so, Origin Amenity have now sold over 350 of the units to date, with more and more sports clubs and contractors now seeing the benefit of investing in this technology. I know my local rugby club have just invested in one and they say it has been a game changer.
Keith Kent far right with fellow staff members
Origin also provides advanced training and support, including LANTRA-accredited courses and a dedicated ESD workshop for repairs and servicing of machines.
Another reason for attending this demo day was to catch up with Keith Kent, ex-Leicester city, Manchester Utd and Twickenham head groundsman, who now works part time at the grammar school helping Chris Parry the school’s estates manager.
It was great to catch up with Keith and have a chat about the industry. He introduced me to his fellow workers who are responsible for looking after the school’s grounds.
Also, this week we see the official announcement from Denis / SISIS of Andy Walker’s retirement, who is stepping back after a long stint of 49 years with the company.
Having met and worked alongside Andy at many of the Dennis / SISIS roadshows, I always found him to be a wealth of knowledge who cared a lot about our industry. I am sure Andy will be greatly missed by a lot of people.
I’d personally like to wish Andy all the best for the future and hope we continue see him in the future at one of the industry shows as a passing visitor.
