Two Mower Robots Free 80+ Hours a Week at an Alabama Soccer Complex

Peak season leaves little room on the grass

A soccer complex is a mowing job that rarely pauses. Turf has to be cut, kept even and playable while the calendar fills with practices, tournaments and league play. The mowing demands here are similar to those of a golf property, where frequent cutting is the price of good playing surfaces.

Every hour a crew spends behind a mower is an hour not spent on the other projects a parks operation carries. That tradeoff grows sharpest in peak season, when the grounds need the most attention and the crew has the least spare time.

Two robots set to work on their own schedule

The complex put two autonomous mower robots to work on its soccer grounds. The robots run around the clock and pause only for charging breaks, so the cutting continues through hours when no crew would be on the field.

The mowing that once required crew hours now runs on the robots, and staff are free for other projects. The shift is simple in concept, but it changes how the day is planned, because the grounds stay in shape without waiting for a free operator.

• Two autonomous mower robots cover the soccer grounds
• The robots run around the clock, pausing only for charging breaks
• Crew hours freed during peak season move to other projects

More than 80 hours a week back during peak season

During peak season the complex reports more than 80 hours a week freed up for other work. That time let staff focus on other projects rather than on keeping the grass in shape.

Because the robots keep cutting through the night apart from charging breaks, the relief lands on the crew's working day. The hours the robots absorb are the hours the crew can give to work that a machine cannot take on.

What this means for operators weighing a robot lease

Service Robot Co. is a vendor neutral robot integrator for US businesses. We select the right robots across manufacturers, then handle commercial robot leasing, robot deployment and integration, training, and service through a nationwide US engineer network. One partner covers the whole lifecycle, so an operator works with one team from the first visit to daily running.

Our robots are leased on a three-year lease with one fixed robot lease payment. That payment is quoted after a site assessment, and for a sports operator the assessment maps the grounds and the schedule so the lease reflects the real job, including whether a mower suits the turf.

The complex in this study is not a Service Robot Co. client, and we did not run this deployment. Its results still show what a dependable mowing schedule can free up, and that is the first thing an operator should weigh when reviewing robot lease options.