Rigby Taylor’s fully autonomous, robotic TinyLineMarker (TLM) Pro has proved to be a “big time saver” for the grounds team at Hartpury University and Hartpury College 360-hectacre, campus, according to Grounds and Sports Maintenance Manager Matthew Newman, who oversees the grounds maintenance of the facility’s multi-million-pound outdoor sports facilities – used by students, as well as Premiership RFU side Gloucester Rugby, Gloucester-Hartpury Women’s RFC, Hartpury University RFC and the university football club.
Mathew was introduced to the TLM Pro when discussing pitch line-marking time management issues with Rigby Taylor’s Technical Sales Manager, Simon Hughes. “There’s probably not a single day when a line marker is not being used by my college team ,” Matthew explains. “We normally pitch prep on a Monday and Tuesday for university and college mid-week fixtures, Gloucester Rugby trains on the same day, Thursday’s a repair day and on Friday we prep for the weekend fixtures. It normally took two members of staff one and a half hours to each mark a pitch, when Simon suggested I try the TLM Pro to help me free up the team members’ time to do other tasks.”
The onsite demonstration included a run through of the robot’s functions, GPS technology and step-by-step guide on how to create pitch templates – via the App and supplied Samsung Galaxy tablet. Two interchangeable batteries provide up to 10 hours spraying time, without re-charging. The demonstration took place on one of Hartpury’s full-sized sports pitches and was completed in just 20 minutes – within an accuracy of 5-10mm.
Matthew was so impressed, he decided to invest in the machine there and then and says it immediately proved to be a massive time saver for the team. “Our sports pitches are adjacent to each other so we can now cut and roll one pitch, put the TLM Pro on to mark and then cut and roll the adjacent pitch while it’s doing its job”.