I know I occasionally bore people with my tangents talking about things I think technology will bring to the future of golf...for bettter and for worse... So apologies for starting a thread devoted to one such thing (and double apologies if someone has already posted this, but we all know the search function doesn't work that well here!)
The robotic greens mower is here! I can't speak for its quality, or how its price compares to the price of a normal greens mower, or for how practical it is running on batteries only -- i.e., how many greens can it mow between chargings?
But it does have a few definite advantages, not the least of which is the fact that a person doesn't need to drive it, and running on batteries it is so quiet they claim you can mow in the middle of the night which is better for the grass -- what do you supers think about that claim?
The implementation is a bit clunky, it uses four ultrasonic beams sent from posts you place around the green. They aren't permanent, someone brings the mower out to the green and sets up the posts, which it uses to determine where the green is. Its not clear to me what you have to do to initially teach the thing the green contours, but presumably you only do this once.
So there's still a lot of labor involved bringing it out to the green and setting up the posts before it can mow, and you have to wait for it to finish to take down the posts and get it to the next green. So I'm not sure how practical this is for overnight mowing, unless the club is rich enough to afford 18 of them. And good security to prevent them being stolen!
But its a good first effort, and I guess that while this thing is mowing the green you can rake the traps or mow the greenside or something so you aren't waiting around for it, so it will reduce labor costs. Whether costs are reduced by enough for it to be worth the cost of the mower I don't know, but this is just a first generation product, I'm sure they'll improve down the road.
They say they are already working on systems to mow fairways, rake traps and apply chemicals, and presumably will be doing other improvements that will eventually eliminate the need for setting up and taking down beacons around the area you want to work on. It would certainly save a lot of maintenance cost to have a few robots leave the maintenance shed after dark and do all the mowing and raking, and maybe even put down chemicals in the area where the super specifies. Or better yet perhaps someday be able to examine the grass clippings to determine where and what chemicals are needed by itsel (might not be as good as a good super, but it would be great for all the low budget courses that can't afford a good super)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17912_3-10171944-72.html?tag=newsCategoryArea.1