Precise Path Robotics Inc., the locally based maker of robotic lawn mowers founded by entrepreneur Scott Jones, announced Tuesday that it has secured $4.5 million in private funding.

The investors include Charlie Staples, a 30-year veteran of the golf course industry. Staples also joined Precise Path’s board of directors.

Over the course of his career, Staples has owned and operated over 80 golf courses, including Florida’s Doral Golf Resort and Spa, host of the PGA Tour for over 45 years and home of the TPC Blue Monster course.

“What Precise Path has developed is more than just another promising technology,” Staples said in a prepared statement. “It’s a commercial-ready system that improves the quality of golf course greens while dramatically reducing the costs to maintain them.”

The round of funding follows on the heels of Precise Path's securing of multi-unit sales orders from two major golf course management companies. Combined, these customers own and/or manage more than 100 U.S. golf courses.

Jones is no rookie when it comes to innovating technology and growing companies. He is credited with the development of one of the first voicemail systems, one of the largest music-data services, and one of the world’s top Internet answer-finding services, ChaCha.com.

Precise Path unveiled its first product in late 2008.