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Shadow Caddy

Breakthrough:
The world’s first hands-free robotic golf caddy; an alternative to lugging clubs around with you.

Inventor:
Hubert Novak, Australia

Financial reward:
$10 million+

The Story:

When a back and shoulder injury from playing sport in his youth threatened to spoil his enjoyment of golf, Hubert Novak put his thinking cap as well as his plus fours on. The result was the world’s first hands-free robotic golfing caddy.

The Shadow Caddy is a three-wheeled robotic vehicle that faithfully follows a golfer up hills and through the rough and the smooth allowing those with back, shoulder or neck injuries to enjoy their game without having to carry heavy bags full of clubs.

Unlike other systems that are on the market it does not work by remote control, it is completely hands-free. The caddy follows a transmitter worn on the golfer's belt and is accurate down to about 3 centimeters. It’s a Radio Frequency (RF) system that processes the signal at 50 times a second. And a sophisticated collision detection system involving infrared scanners and associated software prevents collisions with people or objects on the course. It will start, stop and turn when the player does and will always keep a distance of one meter behind. And the machine is no slouch when it comes to first class service as it will also carry your drinks for you.

Just Play

Shadow Caddy has not been designed for those who prefer to ride around the course on buggies; it is aimed at those who want to move about freely like the professionals do – to concentrate on their play and forget about what their clubs are doing when they are not being sliced through the air.

The idea for the robotic golfing partner had been germinating in Novak’s mind for some time, but it really came to the fore when he noticed the poor condition of some new electronic buggies at a course he used to play at in Melbourne. They had only been in use for a week yet they were beset with problems; there were damaged wheels and broken bearings. Novak simply thought he could do better. Research soon revealed that no one had designed a hands-free golfing system that followed players around.

The budding inventor wasn’t a fan of electronic buggies as he still had to carry his clubs, plus he was always thinking about where he would put them when he was steering. But he wanted to know if other players thought like him and so he went around golf courses canvassing opinions. This market research convinced him that he was onto something.

Challenges

There were many tough challenges during the development process. Novak initially thought that product development would take three months - it took three years.

The first step was to develop the tracking system. The budding inventor paid for some old tracking technology from World War II submarines and enlisted the help of an electronics engineer. After six months the submarine technology was jettisoned. They tried another approach but success came with their third attempt.

Collision Avoidance

The hardest part of the design process was the collision avoidance system. The sensors are infrared and it took 18 months before Novak realized that the sun’s infra-red beams were interfering with the caddy’s sensors. And so he had to go back to the drawing board with this part of the design, which ended with him coming up with an off-the-shelf solution to cope with the sun’s rays.

He found a tooling partner in China and eventually a working prototype was constructed. It was loud, bulky and unwieldy, but as far as demonstrating proof of principle was concerned it was perfect, as the computer parts and electronic components worked faultlessly. The prototype was followed by three more redesigns.

$3 million was sunk into the project, including $100,000 on global patents. The money came from private equity from friends, and Federal Government research and developments grants - all of which were easier to come by once the prototype had been developed.

Ultimately everything about Shadow Caddy has been designed from scratch - there’s not a single item on it that has just been bought. Even the tires and the wheels have been made specifically for the robotic device.

The Drive for Success

Shadow Caddies are now popping up on numerous courses all over the world, and it struck Novak that the track and follow-me technology he developed could be used in other fields. For example, it could be used in the mail industry to relieve the burden of postal workers who have to carry letters and parcels when they deliver house-to-house. He’s been in discussion with representatives from several different industries who have been showing an interest. So it could be that Shadow Caddy’s range extends far beyond the golf course.

by Paul Arnold

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