Robot on the Fairway

We've been able to buy domestic robotic lawnmowers for a while now. But what do you do if you need to tend the grass on something larger than the average garden? Like, say, a golf course.

Enter the RG3, currently being tested at golf courses in Florida and Indiana. This rather imposing looking robot lawnmower has been created by PrecisePath (formerly IndyRobotics) specifically to mow the grass on golf courses. The RG3 uses a Local Positioning System (LPS) to identify its location and orientation on the green together with a laser sensor to detect and avoid obstacles.

The RG3 is only the start of what could be a whole fleet (army?) of industrial scale robotic gardeners. PrecisePath has plans to develop a wide range of robots to bring "automation for the outdoors" to a variety of different spaces including sports fields, corporate and public spaces.