Chattanooga is a city in Tennessee with a unique vision: to be “A City in a Park.” To bring this vision to life, the Chattanooga Department of Parks and Outdoors manages an extensive system of green spaces for their community. In search of greater efficiency, they first got a Turf Tank line marking robot for their fields, and impressed by its performance, later added a second one to their operations.
THE CHALLENGE
Maintaining Chattanooga’s diverse recreational facilities was challenging using traditional line marking methods. A labor-intensive, time-consuming process was putting a real strain on the department’s workforce.
THE SOLUTION
In 2022, Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors decided to automate their line marking process with a Turf Tank One robot. This technology significantly improved the efficiency of the grounds crew and opened up new opportunities for the city. So impressed with the results, they added an additional Turf Tank Two to their equipment in 2024.
Solving the field maintenance efficiency problem
Tim Gabrell is the crew supervisor for the City of Chattanooga Department of Parks and Outdoors. Tim explains that maintaining Chattanooga’s diverse recreational facilities, including football, softball, baseball, soccer, rugby fields, and more, presented significant challenges. Particularly the traditional line marking methods were putting a strain on their labor force.
“We were having to put four, five, six people to come in and do first painting, and it was taking half a day.” Tim recalls.
| Manual Marking |
| 5 people |
| 4 labor hours |
| Pulling strings, manual measurements |
| Turf Tank |
| 1 person |
| 5 minute setup, 3h 29m robot painting |
| Quick, tablet setup |
This labor-intensive process was not only time-consuming but also pulled valuable resources from other essential tasks. Recognizing the need for a more efficient solution, Tim and his team began exploring innovative approaches to field marking. Their search led them to line marking robots and to the Turf Tank robot.
The introduction of the Turf Tank robot dramatically improved the efficiency of their operations. Take, for example, a football field – a task that previously required a team of workers and several hours could now be completed by a single operator in a fraction of the time.
We don’t have to pull tapes and measure. Using one person instead of five, we just pick a point and let the robot do it for us.
Tim Gambrell,
Crew Supervisor
With the help of the robot, Chattanooga City managed to reduce their labor hours on football field painting from 20 hours to only 3 hours and 30 minutes.
The benefits extended beyond just time savings. The robot’s flexibility allows users to easily switch nozzles, giving them control over paint application and enabling significant reductions in paint usage.
“It also gives us a lot of options with the amount of paint we use,” Tim notes. “We can change tips rather easily. So we can adjust the amount of times we have to paint with our mowing schedule to really reduce the amount of paint we use.”
We can adjust the amount of times we have to paint with our mowing schedule to really reduce the amount of paint we use.
Tim Gambrell,
Crew Supervisor
Expanding horizons in line marking
The Turf Tank robot’s versatility opened up new possibilities for the Chattanooga Department of Parks and Outdoors, extending far beyond sports field marking.The robot’s ability to create precise text, numbers, and logos allowed the city to innovatively enhance their outdoor spaces,
One of the most exciting new opportunities came in the form of creating large-scale logos. Tim explains, “At the end of this month, there’s a Chattanooga cool-down festival at the riverfront. We go in and put logos on the grass that can be seen from the bridges, which really helps with the look and the festivity.”
This ability to create eye-catching, large-scale graphics not only improved the visual appeal of events but also provided a unique branding opportunity for the city. The precision and ease of use of the Turf Tank robot made it possible to transform open grass areas into canvases for community engagement and celebration.
Conclusion
The introduction of the Turf Tank robot revolutionized field marking for Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors, enhancing efficiency and precision while significantly reducing paint consumption. Impressed by the transformative results and the flexibility the technology offered, the department decided to expand their capabilities by adding a second Turf Tank Two robot to their fleet.
