5 days ago
Go deep! Watch an autonomous robot paint the lines on the Seattle Seahawks practice field
A Turf Tank Two autonomous sports field-marking robot. (Turf Tank Photo)
The Seattle Seahawks have found an exceptionally efficient route runner.
While Turf Tank might have a perfect football name, it won't be suited up as a player on Sundays. But the autonomous robot is already part of the team — and is even sporting Action Green.
A new video on social media shows how the programmable, GPS-enabled, four-wheeled device has been deployed in time for training camp at Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton, Wash., which kicks off today and runs through Aug. 12.
'One more sleep 'til training camp begins, and the field's never looked better,' the Seahawks said on Instagram Tuesday night alongside a video that showed Turf Tank painting white yard lines, sidelines and hash marks.
According to the Danish company's website, Turf Tank — which costs as much as $60,000 — is being used by more than 5,000 organizations worldwide, and can paint 120 different layouts for a variety of sports, including football, soccer, baseball, lacrosse and rugby.
The device — which can also draw numbers, letters and logos — is designed to stripe fields more accurately than human-powered line markers and save the amount of time and paint it takes to prepare a surface. It works on grass, artificial turf and infield dirt.
The Seahawks told GeekWire they've been using the machine for about three years at VMAC (no deployment at Lumen Field) and that it takes a little under two hours to do all of the markings.
The Seahawks video shows a Turf Tank Two in operation, and a video on the company's website describes the software program that is used to set up and control the robot via a tablet.
Founded in 2014, Turf Tank says one of its first prototypes was built using another iconic Danish invention — LEGO.
