GPS-controlled Robot Mower Developed for Golf Courses

Mamiya-OP Co Ltd will release a robot mower for golf courses in 2015.
The company runs electronic device businesses (e.g. banknote counters) and deals with sports goods. It developed the robot in cooperation with Jacobsen, a US-based major manufacturer of lawnmowers for golf courses.
Mamiya-OP will launch the "Robot Mower for Five Successive Fairways," which is made by combining Jacobsen"s mower and the "I-GINS (integrated-GPS inertial navigation system)," an autonomous driving system developed by Mamiya-OP. The company aims at global sales of ¥2 billion (approx US$16.7 million) in three years.
The price of the robot mower is US$70,000-90,000 per unit. In general, a large amount of cost is spent for lawn mowing in golf courses. And the introduction of the robot can halve the annual cost.
"It is possible to pay off the introduction cost of the robot mower in three years," Mamiya-OP said.

Combination of gyroscope, GPS

By using a GPS, three-axis gyroscope and encoder, the robot can move along a preset route with a margin of error of 3-5cm at a speed of 10km/h while mowing the lawn. When it is running on the boundary of a fairway, it automatically draws a map and creates a route for mowing the lawn in the fairway. It takes less than 20 minutes to mow the lawn on a fairway.
Also, the robot can detect obstacles such as a human on a fairway. It has a sensor on each of its front and rear sides and can detect even obstacles as small as a golf ball. The function to detect obstacles was developed in cooperation with ZMP Inc, a venture firm that deals with autonomous driving and robot technologies.
Mamiya-OP will release robot mowers for greens and rough. And it plans to apply the autonomous driving system to agricultural machines and snowplows.