Goodyear using robot technology to paint sporting fields

GOODYEAR, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -- As companies continue to struggle to return to a pre-pandemic workforce, the city of Goodyear has a robot to help fill in the gaps with their parks department. “It never crossed any of our minds that this would be feasible, let alone be something we would implement on a weekly basis,” said Dane Moreno, the Goodyear Parks Department foreman.

The robot is from the company Turf Tank, which uses GPS coordinates with Google Maps. The city is able to program the robot to paint the lines for any sporting field, including soccer, football and baseball.

When the pandemic hit, it took a toll on the park’s department, which continues to be understaffed. So they turned to this technology to fill in the gaps. “It has saved us countless hours. We are averaging 15-man hours saved every week,” said Moreno.

The robot has a sensor to stop it if something gets in the way and resumes later. It also works fast. During Arizona’s Family’s interview with Moreno, it started and nearly finished painting a smaller soccer field in the background, all in about 10 minutes. Larger fields can take about half an hour. According to Moreno, this job typically would take two to three people and about three to four hours to complete. “Robot accuracy is with in an 8th of an inch on any give line on any given logo. For us to achieve that with some string line and some nails we get close, but we are not perfect,” said Moreno.

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