An industry first: Black Desert Championship to use autonomous fairway mowers

Black Desert Resort in Ivins, Utah, selected Firefly Automatix to autonomously mow and maintain its golf course fairways during the Black Desert Championship on Oct. 9-13, 2024.

For four weeks leading up to and during the tournament, FireFly Automatix will deploy a fleet of four AMPs (100-inch-wide, 5-gang reel mowers) to maintain all 60 acres of the course’s fairways, marking a first for autonomous mowing at a professional golf tournament. The all-electric AMPTM, powered by a 35 kWh LiFePO4 battery pack, offers up to 25 acres of mowing capacity. With four AMPs working together, the team can mow all 18 fairways at Black Desert in just four hours each night.

“We’re proud to help sponsor the return of the PGA to Utah after 60 years. It’s truly an honor to have been selected by Black Desert to maintain their fairways for such a prestigious event,” said Steve Aposhian, chairman and chief technology officer and co-founder of FireFly Automatix. “It validates that the technology we have built into AMP will revolutionize the industry while also highlighting that this is the only autonomous mower on the market currently capable of taking on such a task.”

Launched last year and now delivering to golf courses and other applications across North America, the AMP-L100 brings a suite of unique capabilities to this championship course. Utilizing FireFly’s QuickPlan software, the team was able to create mowing patterns for each fairway that perfectly align the striping direction for the entire course.

Once created, the cloud-based mowing patterns can be utilized by all AMP mowers to ensure that the stripes are in the exact same place every day. This kind of precision is made possible through AMP’s RTK GPS guidance, and its ability to consistently mow straight lines, even at night, is an invaluable asset for tournaments that require nighttime mowing.

Once the tournament starts, all mowing must be completed in the dark to avoid interrupting play. AMP’s precision steering and consistent mowing patterns make it the only mower capable of delivering flawless results under such conditions. In addition, because AMPs mow without an operator, it allows course labor traditionally tied to mowing to be reallocated to other essential tasks, ensuring that the course is in peak condition.

AMP is also all-electric, which complements Black Desert’s conservation efforts. AMP is not only nearly silent and non-polluting, but its design also eliminates traditional fuel and hydraulic systems. This removes the risk of hydraulic or fuel leaks, which can be disastrous for maintaining pristine fairways. This innovation significantly reduces stress for golf course agronomists focused on keeping the course in optimal condition before and during the tournament.

AMP’s design helps protect the grass by eliminating tire scrubbing and torque imbalances, common issues with traditional fairway mowers. This reduces turf damage while improving traction and maneuverability, thanks to its patented electric 4-wheel drive and steering system.

“The initial goal of this project was to engineer the best fairway mower on the market,” explained Mark LeBlanc, lead engineer and product manager of FireFly Automatix. “AMP was engineered to be autonomous from the ground up, giving us invaluable freedom to make electrical and mechanical design decisions that would best complement the autonomy software. We made it all-electric because that allowed us to develop the entire system to achieve better traction, ground clearance and weight balance, as well as higher torque and precision in both steering and drive systems—all without the limitations of traditional engines and hydraulic systems that have been largely unchanged for decades. In addition, we found that the cut quality is much better because there is no vibration created by an engine or hydraulic system.”

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