By now, some of us have seen the wave of the future in golf course mowing equipment in the form of autonomous mowers inconspicuously and quietly roaming around our golf courses. The leader in autonomous mowing equipment is Husqvarna. In the late 1600’s, the wars that raged across Europe resulted in an increase in Sweden’s weapons production. Hydropower was required in the manufacturing process, so in 1689, a drilling works was established beside the waterfalls in Huskvarna, southern Sweden (at that time spelled Husqvarna), where many products are still produced today. As the need for weapons declined, the company saw an opportunity to branch out by applying the precision engineering skills achieved from producing weapons, to a whole new set of other products ranging from sewing machines, hunting weapons, wood stoves, mincing machines, bicycles, motorcycles, gas stoves, microwave ovens and much more. While a complete history of this 330 year old company can be found at this link, it’s important to know that Husqvarna started producing robotic mowing equipment in 1995.
The current generation of their robotic mowing equipment, Automower AWD models, arrived in 2018. In order to learn more about them and their application on golf courses, I spoke with David Plaster, Husqvarna’s Senior Director for Golf & Sports Turf and asked a few questions.
I asked about autonomous equipment in general and while Plaster said that right now there’s just mowing equipment, he suggested that the future could include other autonomous golf course maintenance machines. While I’ve only seen them used in rough areas, Plaster indicated that these units can do fairways and tees as well and can cut below heights of .300″, well below most fairway cuts. As of yet, there aren’t autonomous mowers for greens, which are usually cut between <.100″ to .150″.
Though he didn’t want to discuss specific pricing for golf courses (retail is listed on their website), Plaster compared the acquisition cost of their largest unit (which does both fairways and rough interchangeably) at about 1/3 the cost of a traditional fairway unit and their smaller unit at about 1/20 the cost. Cutting heights can be set from a cell phone and changed quickly and easily. There are larger models designed to handle up to 18 acres per week and smaller models designed to handle 2.5 acres. Husqvarna’s Automower 550EPOS can manage slopes of up to 70% – areas unsafe to handle with brush cutters or traditional ride-on mowers. Despite needing more units than with traditional, manned mowers, Plaster said that the acquisition cost based on the necessary fleet size for any given golf course is still considerably less than the manned mowers. He emphasized the advantages as not only cost of acquisition, but also cost of operation since they are electrically powered and Plaster compared the cost of electricity as similar for one unit for a year to one tank of gas or diesel. Blades aren’t sharpened, they’re disposable and replaceable and cost about $2 a piece, normally a “few hundred dollars” per unit per year. He emphasized the quality of cut, compared to a reel mower and that they operate 24/7, affording consistent rough and fairway height all the time.
What is really “cool” is how, when appropriate, the machine returns to its charging station, recharges and then goes out on the job again on its own. I’ve seen this happen. Plaster estimated the payback as very short, given the various advantages of the units.
When I asked about labor savings, Plaster emphasized that their machines don’t replace labor, but do free workers for redeployment to other areas. He suggests that they’re a labor force multiplier for the customer (golf course). In the current environment for staffing, that’s a big plus.
The mowers operate by GPS with RTK (real time kinetics) and the machines can see their way around trees, boulders, golf carts, golf bags, benches, ball washers and even people and may gently bump into an object with no damage or injury to either the object or the equipment. They use Exact Positioning Software (EPOS) so the unit knows where to go. Since the units can be programmed digitally, from one’s cell phone (like the rest of the world), Husqvarna comes and trains the staff and the learning curve is short. Plaster describes the machines as maintenance friendly, with cleaning and changing the razor like blades the most frequent items. The machines are designed to last as long as traditional maintenance equipment.
Another advantage of the autonomous equipment is that they’re quiet and can be used in noise-sensitive areas and at night. Plaster said that the technology is proven, and that Husqvarna has made 3.5 million machines. He emphasizes that they are not a replacement for labor but rather an enhancement that also uses less energy and is environmentally friendly.
For golf course mowing, the future is now.