Two AMP “Autonomous Mowing Platforms” from FireFly Automatix mowing at The Santaluz Club in San Diego, California
After more than two months of having three of FireFly’s AMP all-electric, self-driving 100-inch-wide professional mowers on-site, Santaluz expects to realize ~$115,000/year in savings / value gained solely by replacing its diesel-powered fairway mowers with AMPs. Even with mowing 6X/week vs. 3X/week, personnel productivity has doubled, yet Santaluz will save ~2,000 hours/year and close to $15,000 in fuel costs alone with AMPs.
FireFly Automatix™ is proud to announce that southern California-based The Santaluz Club is the world’s first golf community to deploy FireFly’s AMP™ “Autonomous Mowing Platform.”
Perhaps even more importantly, after utilizing three AMP all-electric, self-driving 100-inch-wide professional mowers for over two-plus months on its 300-acre championship golf course, Santaluz has not only seen increased productivity by using AMP, it now expects to realize annual savings / gained value of ~$115,000/year – just by deploying AMPs on its course.
The Santaluz Club Backstory
Nestled 20 minutes north of downtown San Diego, California, The Santaluz Club is a 20-year-old, member-owned, high-end community centered around a beautiful 7,112-yard, Par 71 course designed by globally renowned architect, Rees Jones.
Under the guidance of Jeff Miller, its innovative Director of Agronomy/Superintendent (someone who has been with Santaluz since it opened), the Club strives to lead the way in the early integration and adoption of new technologies, solutions designed to deliver the high-end, on-course experiences its members and visiting golfers have come to expect.
Previously, this has included the introduction and initial use of smaller robotic mowers and different internet-connected devices at Santaluz, systems designed to help maintain/support the course.
However, like many industry professionals, Miller has found himself and the Club challenged by such divergent yet interconnected issues as
- Rising capital equipment costs,
- The tight labor market,
- Increasing wages, and
- Growing environmental concerns.
Hence, the premise of FireFly’s self-driving, all-electric AMP mowing platform really intrigued him.
So when he saw an AMP demo for the first time, in a pouring downpour no less, Miller says he was sold:
“During that AMP demo there was standing water everywhere. I would never let a traditional mower operate in those conditions. But with the independent drive system to each of the four AMP wheels, they didn’t spin at all, but just kept a smooth traction. The AMP just slowed down and didn’t rut the fairway. I was pretty impressed, and it was an easy decision to move forward with the AMPs from FireFly Automatix.” – Jeff Miller, Director of Agronomy, The Santaluz Club
A Brief AMP Overview
First unveiled a year ago at the annual Turfgrass Producers International convention, the now shipping and now-named AMP is an unparalleled professional mowing platform that was purpose-built and designed from the ground-up to be an electric vehicle, not a gas- or diesel-propelled system retrofitted with EV technologies.
According to the company, select AMP technological highlights include
- Built-in LiDAR-enabled obstacle detection for safety;
- Precise navigation via RTK-corrected GPS services;
- Advanced LiFePO4 battery technology to deliver up to 25 acres of mowing/charge; and
- Proprietary cloud-based AMP control and monitoring via a handheld computer tablet to deliver optimized mowing precision, including
- Exacting, ruler-straight mow pattern options customized for each hole / course, and
- Start-and-forget cutting functionality.
- Four independent electric drive motors synchronized with two independent steering motors to achieve low-impact traction, virtually eliminating potential fairway damage;
In addition, the AMP delivers optimized height of cut capabilities in increments of 1/100th of an inch (0.01-in.) and reel-to-reel bedknife in increments of 5/1000th of an inch (0.005-in.).
{NOTE: For a complete list of features/benefits, please visit the AMP Product Page here.}
Santaluz Club Outcomes Powered by AMP from FireFly Automatix
“Traditionally, we mowed two to three times a week (with diesel-powered, worker-driven mowers),” said Jeff Miller, Director of Agronomy and Superintendent at The Santaluz Club. “But with AMP, we’re now mowing 6X per week, with our three AMPs completing the entire course in 4-4.5 hours. With those calculations, we’ll save about 2,000 hours/year, which works out to ~$50,000 in annual labor costs. However, now that we’re mowing 6X/week, if you take the value that we’re gaining (the OpEx costs), we’ll actually double that amount value-wise.
“Then, when we add in fuel savings, we’ll save an additional $15,000/year in hard costs for diesel fuel. So that pushes our total savings/value gained each year to close to $115,000.”
According to Mark LeBlanc, Sr. Engineer/Product Manager of FireFly Automatix, the company was highly confident it had created something both unique and beneficial with its AMP, but not to the extent a course like Santaluz has now proven.
“The potential blessings of all-electric, self-driving autonomous and safe vehicles is tremendous,” LeBlanc said. “But we realized that to truly deliver on such potential, we knew we had to be totally committed and go all-in – 100% – with our AMP mowing platform. And to be clear, it has not been easy.
“However, we’ve now dedicated tens-of-thousands of hours of engineering, software, integration and manufacturing into designing / building our AMP, and that’s before we even began field-testing. But as Jeff Miller and the entire team at The Santaluz Club have proven, the benefits of moving to AMP and leaving behind the over 100-year-old internal combustion engine platforms powering most mowers today is simply undeniable.
“The AMP is truly disruptive technology. It will save you money, help the environment, reduce noise pollution, is super easy to set-up and operate, and it lowers labor requirements and costs. In fact, AMP is arguably the most transformative system to hit the golf and turfgrass industries since the first motorized mower was introduced decades ago.”
For golf and turfgrass professionals / communities interested in learning how the AMP from FireFly Automatix can revolutionize your particular ecosystem, please visit https://fireflyautomatix.com/amp-mowers/. Or email us at sales@fireflyautomatix.com. to close to $115,000.”