I can honestly say I have enjoyed a profound couple of weeks looking into the future of grounds maintenance grass mowing, with the advent of larger and more productive robotic mowers.
Visits to Manchester City Football Club and Ragley Hall in Warwickshire offered me the opportunity to see two new additions to the ever growing lineup of autonomous mowers now on offer to turf professionals.
RoviMo
First up was the chance to view the unveiling of what’s described as the UK’s first autonomous battery powered cylinder mower, the RoviMo, Developed and manufactured by Ronovatec, a Swiss based company, it is distributed here in the UK by the GGM Group overseen by their managing director, Chris Gibson.
Chris was excited about the potential of this new product, saying that RoviMo is the world’s first intelligent electric vehicle capable of mowing patterns autonomously according to the guidelines of national football associations, UEFA, or FIFA, precisely and over the shortest distance offering a range of cutting patterns at the touch of a button.
Now into its final phase of development, the object of the day’s demonstration was to allow some professional premiership grounds staff to see it working. Also the event allowed for both Ronovatec and GGM to gain some feedback and observations from these leading grounds professionals.
We had representations from Arsenal, Burnley, Everton and a strong contingent of the Manchester City grounds team, under the leadership of Roy Rigby.
Roy has been in this industry 40 plus years and knows only too well that we as grounds professionals are always looking for innovations and efficiencies to make our jobs more productive and a safer environment to work in.
The day began with the introduction to the company who took on the production of this autonomous vehicle and have spent the six years bringing it to fruition. First up was Marcus Riva CEO, Ronovatec who gave us an insight to how this project came about starting with initial thoughts on its merits in 2015.
He said a partner was found in the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Lucerne who, along with sponsorship from Innosuisse, produced the first prototype in 2018. Thousands of working hours were invested into R&D with regards to intelligence and mechanics. The result is the first fully electric spindle (cylinder) mower robot to autonomously mow lawn patterns.
To date the company have built seven of these RoviMo units with six actively working in Europe.
The development of this autonomous unit was essentially to provide an equipment carrier system that can autonomously, quietly and precisely perform various repetitive operations associated with the maintenance of professional sport playing surfaces, both natural and synthetic pitches.
The company are currently looking at providing, a set of rotary mowers, brushes and verticutting units to add to the unit along with developing a triple cylinder mower attachment that will be able to open up the market to golf clubs. In fact, the scope of attachments that could be developed are staggering.
I sure there will be a lot of interest once the RoviMo is finally finished and the relevant adaptions are fully functional and the robot can complete the tasks it been designed for, thus making it a reliable labour-saving device.
CEORA
Next up, I was invited to attend a viewing of Husqvarna’s latest autonomous mowing solution their new CEORA™ robotic mower at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire. A number of machinery dealers and end users were there to see the mower being demonstrated and find out more about this new product.
With its huge area capacity, of up to 75,000m2 the CEORA™ robotic mower is described by it’s manufacturer as great news for all green space professionals. Husqvarna have been at the forefront of robotic mower technologies for a number of years and successfully produced a number of smaller scale robotic mowers that have been widely accepted and courted by the domestic markets especially in Europe and the UK.
However, with the development of newer technologies and the ever improving GPS satellite systems Husqvarna have capitalised, making this fully autonomous robotic mower that can cover a far wider area than their existing range – yet, as they say, still deliver the cutting results you expect from a Husqvarna robotic solution.
The company says that by cutting systematically in parallel tracks, it means CEORA™ is equally efficient whether managing football pitches or any other large green space. You can also define work areas and set a schedule where various times and different grass heights between 20mm and 70mm are specified. Scheduling one pitch for a morning cut, and another for an afternoon cut at a different cutting height is possible for example.
This state-of-the-art autonomous mowing solution is guided by Husqvarna EPOS technology. Precise satellite navigation with virtual boundaries eliminates the hassle of physical wires. Quick definitions of work areas and stay-out zones accommodate optimal use of the turf, while aerating is made easier without the risk of damage wires. The robotic mower travels between work areas on defined transport paths, while temporary stay-out zones can be created for more flexible turf management.
Users have complete control over the machine directly from their smart phone. Husqvarna Fleet Services also allows surveillance and map localisation for full control and theft protection.
The mower stays updated with the latest software via FOTA (Firmware Over The Air), while easy maintenance and handling are made possible by an ergonomic cutting deck service position. The cutting deck can be tilted for easy access to exchange cutting discs, and for easy cleaning.
And as for the future, Husqvarna are also talking about the possibilities of adding additional accessories to this mower such as a fairway deck and a line painter in future modules.
Its huge area capacity and sustainable capabilities mean CEORA™ represents a potential investment for facilities and municipalities looking to meet targets on emissions and noise levels. Furthermore, replacing manual mowing with a robotic solution that can cover areas up to 75,000m² twice a week presents the opportunity to make major savings on labour and equipment costs. New levels of flexibility and performance are also possible, with turf care aided by virtual boundaries.
Having spoken to several of the dealers present, the consensus was the popularity of these battery powered robotic mowers is growing. And there are likely be a few robotic wars on the horizon between manufacturers to supply and service our ever demanding sport turf / amenity industry.
