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Taking Turf Tank — The Field Painting Robot — Mobile in Under a Year
Turf Tank
“I was pleasantly surprised with KITRUM’s workflow and proactive stance in every process and decision. The job that their engineers have done exceeded all the expectations.” — Stefan Thilemann, CTO at Turf Tank
Challenge
Turf Tank is the brainchild of a group of Danes who set out to automate and improve the process of painting athletic fields. What started as a prototype made of Lego bricks turned into a successful business and a cutting-edge autonomous field-painting robot.
Stefan Thilemann, CTO at Turf Tank, contacted us to supplement his team, take it to the cloud, and create a mobile app. Stefan’s requirements were challenging — he requested senior engineers with Flutter/.Net experience — and we were glad to help.
Besides starting from scratch, the KITRUM team had to crack open their dusty school Calculus books and tackle the challenge of taking Turf Tank mobile with an architecture that would allow it to scale.
Solution
From the very beginning, it was a collaboration between Kitrum and the Turf Tank team. Our engineers worked in complete synergy with Turf Tank’s in-house developers.
Before we get deeper into the Turf Tank mobile app MVP, look at this demo video to better understand how Turf Tank works.
So as you can imagine, there are a lot of moving parts. There’s the hardware that powers the line marking robot and the slew of software solutions, ensuring the robot paints perfect lines.
To deliver a mobile app with the capabilities, the Turf Tank team and we used .NET, Flutter, Microsoft Azure, and also custom APIs provided by Turf Tank. With this solution, Turf Tank customers can create user profiles, control the robot (both manually and automatically), and much more.
We used a range of applied sciences such as arithmetic, Calculus, physical science, geometry, and Robotics.
In under a year, we delivered the following features:
Custom user interface
Designed by Turf Tank and implemented by Kitrum engineers and Daniel Fischer to fit the business logic and the workflows that field managers need.
Custom fields & designs
Set up custom logos and field sizes for any sport (football, soccer, baseball, etc.). And make changes on the fly.
Joystick
The robot can be switched to manual mode and driven around with the on-screen joystick.
Field & robot management
Manage multiple fields and robots, and add & remove fields.
Real-time monitoring
Keep track of your paint robots, check out how they’re doing, and never lose them, thanks to the built-in GPS tracking.
Impact
Since the mobile app is slated to go live July-August 2022, it’s still early to measure the impact. However, Turf Tank’s 1000+ customers can now control their robots through their mobile phones, making it easier to manage and paint fields and a significant selling point.
By separating the software into layers and getting rid of dependencies, Kitrum has created a stable, easily testable app that can scale. For Turf Tank’s customers, this translates to making use of the system more enjoyable because of the UX design we have implemented.
Next Chapter
Turf Tank customers worldwide can control, set up, and paint their athletic fields using an easy-to-use Android app. KITRUM is working with the Turf Tank team to this day and will continue to support the team in any challenges and tasks they will have in the future.
The next chapter in development is expanding Turf Tank’s features (still under wraps), improving the API and a lot more.
