A Danish-based company is using Georgia as the entree into the U.S. market for its autonomous line-marking robots used on athletic fields.
Tiny Mobile Robots says it takes pride in the machines’ ability to save turf managers time and money while offering them an environmentally friendly solution that uses battery power instead of the diesel fuel used by many other machines.
Using the robots, a soccer field can be marked in 20 minutes instead of an estimated two hours, while a football field takes two hours instead of 20 when conducted by grounds crews, the company said, notching a time savings of up to 90 percent.
Officials also point to the robots’ ease of use. They’re managed on a smartphone or tablet app, with more than 50 pre-programmed field configurations available for just about any sport — soccer, baseball, football, lacrosse and others.
The company hit a new milestone this week when longtime customer FC Dallas, the Texas city’s professional soccer team, used a Tiny Mobile Robot to paint lines on its pitch, making it the 1 millionth field lined using the technology developed and manufactured in Malling, Denmark, just outside the city of Aarhus. By its own calculations, Tiny Mobile Robots have saved sports teams $102.5 million.
The fact that TMR has doubled in size every year since its founding in 2015 is a testament to its robots’ reliability and utility, CEO and founder Jens Peder Kristensen said in a news release.
“Many people don’t realize just how costly and time-consuming field marking can be. Grass grows two to six inches per month, and any field can host multiple games a day, so fields must be constantly re-marked to remain playable,” Mr. Kristensen said.
Seeking better control over its rapid growth trajectory in the U.S., TMR opened a small distribution facility in Kennesaw last year, having formerly worked with outside distributors.
Terrence David was brought on last September as vice president of sales, perhaps in part thanks to his long history in educational sales, which gave him an understanding of budgetary cycles in school districts, and his technical background selling Microsoft software.
Tiny Mobile Robots’ Tiny LineMarkers tend to sell themselves, Mr. David told Global Atlanta. Those involved in field maintenance are often hooked after a demo, and officials holding the purse strings can be convinced of their return on investment after seeing how many man hours are saved, not to mention paint and cleanup time.
“It’s really a game-changer when it comes to associations, small clubs, and small school districts that really need it,” Mr. David said.
Having a physical presence in Kennesaw, staffed with a technical director, has been vital to providing responsive service amid a time of rapid growth as more people see the benefits of using robots to free up human workers for more productive tasks, he said, noting that the robots’ accuracy over time is also a key selling factor.
“The robot doesn’t make mistakes. It doesn’t get tired. It’s not trying to hurry up because it has something else to do,” Mr. David said.
TMR expects rapid growth, perhaps hiring 10-15 more sales reps, as word gets out about its capabilities and ease of use: One customer told Mr. David using TMR’s system, an app with cloud-based backups, was like being in elementary school, versus the Ph.D.-level technical expertise needed to use competitors’ systems.
“To me, the only competition that we have is the fact that people don’t know we exist,” Mr. David said.
Strangely enough, however, one of Tiny Mobile Robots’ key competitors from Denmark ended up also operating its U.S. expansion from Cobb County. Turf Tank, based in the northern city of Hjørring, Denmark, is just down the road in Marietta.
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