The Round Rock Multipurpose Complex is the newest game changer for the Sports Capital of Texas. With 60 acres of fields, the complex gives the city the capability to host numerous outdoor sporting events of all sizes and types.
Maintaining such a large area proved to be a real challenge for the turf management team at the complex, so in 2019 they brought a new assistant on the fields – a Turf Tank robot.
THE CHALLENGE
Maintaining a 60-acre facility and enduring all the fields were ready in time for the sporting events became a laborious process for the turf management team at the Round Rock Complex, TX.
THE SOLUTION
So in 2019 they brought on new forces: a Turf Tank Robot. The machine has ever since helped the team optimize their operations, giving them more time to care for the facility and provide professional quality line marking for all types of sports fields.
The robot proved to be a real help at the facility as it could easily be programmed to paint any imaginable field of any size.
“We have a 10-field facility, and with the Turf Tank we managed to paint all the regular fields: soccer, football, flag football, rugby, lacrosse” says Brian Stillman, Sports Facilities and Operations Manager, City of Round Rock Texas. “But in addition to that, we also have a few special layouts. We’ve hosted the World Quidditch Championship, we have goaltimate, a version of ultimate frisbee and for all of these which were not preprogrammed, our staff sent diagrams, dimensions, and the engineers at Turf Tank built all of these into the programming for us.”
CHANGING FIELDS WITH JUST A CLICK
The facility hosts numerous sports events along the year, and thus the staff needs to regularly change the field layout to fit the schedule for the week. “We’ve had weeks when we needed to paint 40+ fields in one-week period to get ready for the weekend” continues Brian.
“The change back and forth between the different sports and different layouts is as easy as going into the tablet that controls the robot, selecting the sport that you want, getting the field aligned as you need it, hitting the green button and letting the robot do its magic.”
BEING MORE EFFICIENT
Ever since the staff made the switch from manual line marking to a robotic solution, they optimized their work, saving time and painting their fields faster. In their previous setup, a 3-person team would need 2 hours to complete a 11v11 soccer field, pulling all the strings, doing the measurements, and painting the fields. “Now with the Turf Tank that’s a 1-man job who manages the robot, gets it ready to go and paints that same soccer field in 25 minutes.”
PAINTING A SOCCER FIELD
Manual marking in the past
- 3 people
- 2 hours
Marking with Turf Tank
- 1 person
- 5 minutes setup
- Field ready in 25 minutes
33% PAINT SAVINGS
Apart from the time savings, the robot also helps the organization reduce its paint consumption. As the staff manages 5 natural grass fields and 5 synthetic turfs, they use both natural grass paint and synthetic turf paint provided by Turf Tank.
We probably buy one third less the amount of paint we previously did.”
Brian Stillman, Sports Facilities and Operations Manager, City of Round Rock Texas
The Turf Tank robot is a great help for the team at Round Rock Multipurpose Complex, saving them time and paint, and giving them the ability to easily change the field layouts to fit their sporting schedule. With such an assistant on their fields, they can be sure that their facility will always stand out with world-class fields suitable for the Sports Capital of Texas.