From today's NY Times (I think it's Trimble GPS):
Golf Robot Totes a Bag,
But Won't Give - Or Take - Tips
By MATT RICHTEL
SAN JOSE, Calif. - The second hole at the San Jose Country Club
climbs sharply, making it impossible to see the distance and path to
the green.
I consult with my caddy, checking the layout of the course on the
computer monitor that rests just below his antennae head. His head . . . I
really should resist the urge to give this motorized golf bag a gender, let
alone a nickname. Then again, how do I not anthropomorphize a robot
that follows dutifully at 10 paces, totes my clubs, has the "intelligence" to
avoid sand traps, water hazards, other carts -- and never, ever mocks my
swing?
Meet the InteleCady, a computerized creature that may soon turn your
local golf course into a scene from the Jetsons.
"Think about what a human caddy
does," said Frederick Fowler, one of
the entrepreneurs behind the
InteleCady. "The InteleCady can do it,
too."
Unlike the wizened old human caddy
-- a dying breed who toted bags,
doled out crucial advice and ran on
intuition, experience and the
occasional beer -- the new incarnation
runs on something else entirely: four
computers, a global positioning
system, two half-horsepower engines,
four batteries and a total of seven
years of engineering. Its four
microprocessors give an entirely new
meaning to the term "chip shot."
The InteleCady's creators, GolfPro International Inc. of San Jose, say
their electronic sherpa is so sophisticated that it's not just a novelty for
golf, but is in fact the world's first commercially available autonomous
robot. They envision the technology could be used to mow lawns, pick
grapes and eventually put assembly-line robots to shame.
GolfPro International plans to install 27 Intelecadys next month at the San
Jose Country Club for commercial use. They hope to roll them out
nationally to 3,000 golf courses, mostly public, in the next five years. The
company plans to give the robots to the courses free, hoping to share in
the projected $16 rental fee for each use.
For all its computing power, though, the InteleCady looks more like
something John Deere cooked up. The base, where the two golf bags sit,
appears to be a motorized cart. A thin four-foot metal neck rises to
support the bags and the computerized map display. At the top is an
antenna.
However, inside the lawnmower-like shell is the brain of a sophisticated
computer: an on-board hard drive contains a map of the entire course,
broken down into 27 million squares, each 3.9 inches wide. Using global
positioning technology, the antenna communicates with satellites that tell
the computerized caddy its precise location on the map. This GPS system
essentially allows the robot to traverse the course without straying into the
rough, onto the greens, or in other "restricted" areas it is programmed to
avoid.
The golfer wears a transmitter that looks like a garage door opener; by
honing in on the signal, the Intelecady knows where to bring the clubs.
And an ultrasound sonar system, which is a half-foot off the ground,
enables the caddy to avoid any hazard that isn't on the map, like a fallen
tree, a riding cart, or a bag of golf clubs tossed onto the fairway. When
you get in its way, the Intelecady stops abruptly, then seeks a course
around you. If only your ball could avoid hazards this readily.
The system works well -- most of the time. Sometimes the robocaddy
doesn't get the transmitter's signal. Plus, it is programmed only to move
forward toward the green, which, as any golfer can tell you, is not what
every golfer always does. Translation: when your ball hits a tree and
bounces backward, you have to pull the caddy manually. And the
Intelecady sometimes meanders, apparently not always realizing that the
shortest distance between two points is a straight line.
After seven years in development, GolfPro International is still working
out these kinks -- and the company faces plenty of other hazards of the
business variety. GolfPro International has already raised $15 million and
plans to invest another $400 million to make thousands of golf courses
robot-ready. This includes not only $4,000 to build each golf bag bot, but
also millions to take aerial photographs of each course and digitally map
them. Then the company must convince golf courses to give the caddies a
try, which may not be easy if some owners worry that the InteleCady will
cannibalize their cart business.
This doesn't seem to daunt Fowler, one of the company's co-founders, a
pack-a-day smoker, and the kind of optimistic salesman who could sell
you a case of liver spots -- and leave you feeling good about the
purchase.
Seven years ago, he was spending about $5,000 a month entertaining
clients from Asia at the Decathlon Club, a posh athletic club in San Jose.
The club's owner, Ron Davies, took notice. "I guess Ron wanted to meet
the guy with the biggest bar tab," Fowler said.
The pair immediately hit it off. Unlike many high-tech entrepreneurs,
neither Fowler nor Davies went straight from college into a garage-based
startup -- each had worked in Silicon Valley for two decades, and each
had started and sold successful companies. They had enough savings to
run the business for at least three years with no income. Now, the
company has 62 employees and 200 investors.
Back at the San Jose Country Club, the fruits of their labor are lumbering
20 paces behind us. A phalanx of four test InteleCadys are going through
their paces, each loaded with an extra laptop that monitors their
path-picking prowess. They chug up the hill on the first hole behind
Fowler and me.
"Everybody since the movie 'Forbidden Planet' has been waiting for the
payday on robots," the salesman said. "This is a start. This robot will
serve you for four and a half hours."
It's true, the InteleCady is no mere appliance. It's easier to use than a
programmable VCR, and probably smarter than a car stereo or
microwave. Which leads me to ask Fowler again: Hey, shouldn't we give
him a name? Or at least take him out for a beer? |
