Autonomous golf ball picking robot design and development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the methodology and the results on the design and development of an autonomous, golf ball picking robot, for driving ranges. Design/methodology/approach – The strategy followed to develop a commercial product is presented, based on prior identification requirements, which consist of picking up golf balls on a driving range in a safe and efficient way. Findings – A fully working prototype robot has been developed. It uses two driving wheels and a third cast wheel, and pushes a standard gang which collects the balls from the ground. A hybrid information system was implemented in order to provide a statistically relevant prediction of golf balls location, to optimize the path the robot has to follow in order to reduce time and cost. Autonomous navigation was developed and tested on a simulation environment. Research limitations/implications – Preliminary results showed that the new path planning algorithm Twin‐RRT* is able to form closed loop trajectories and improve the result over time. Kinematic constraints were already taken into account on the algorithm. This sampling based algorithm has potential usage in solving other TPP (Travelling Purchaser Problem) related problems. Practical implications – The prototype feasibility is being tested in real driving ranges. It has autonomy of up to 8 h per day. It is capable of collecting up to 1,200 balls in one single journey. It weighs 130 kg and is capable of climbing slopes of up to 22°. The maximum speed is 8 km/h and the robot takes 140 min to completely sweep a 25,000 m 2 field at 7.2 km/h (2 m/s) average speed. Social implications – There are about 30,000 golf practice fields, of which 18,000 are located in the USA and Canada. In some countries the golf industry represents more than 15 per cent of tourism GNP. In a typical practice field, about 10,000 balls have to be picked up every day. Originality/value – An important contribution of this paper is the algorithm for path planning in order to optimize the ball pick up task, reducing time and cost. There are two patents are pending concerning the technological novelties of this work.