Domestic Robots, Part II

Dateline: 05/01/99

As you saw in the previous feature article, Cye - the personal robot from Probotics, Inc. - has some impressive features and can be considered as a candidate for the "PC XT" of the home robotics industry. But he is not alone: it will be interesting to see which robot will win the marketing battle and bring standards to the field of home and personal robots. So, let's see another competitor...

Smart vacuum cleaners

Home robots like Cye are great if you want to learn more about while having robot that is able to do basic maintenance tasks in your house. On the other hand, there are many people that think the future of robotics is not R2D2, and that "stand alone/do everything" robot is not necessary. Like Jake Mendelssohn says in the Robot Magazine the "Age of Robotics" is not coming - it is already here. Why have an R2D2 push the vacuum cleaner, when a "smart" vacuum will be able to move itself around the room?

The world's first robotic vacuum cleaner has arrived over a year ago. Electrolux, the world's largest household appliance manufacturer, unveiled its prototype of robot vacuum cleaner, beginning the journey to the home of the future and answering the prayers of people tired of boring household tasks (and what could be more boring than vacuuming the whole house over and over again?). Although there are no immediate plans for production, Electrolux hopes that the robot vacuum cleaner could become a standard item in homes all over the world in the future.

This isn't what you would expect from an average robot: it is a smooth round disc with an in-built navigational radar that allows it to vacuum its way around any room without bumping into furniture or other obstacles. Although clearly futuristic, the design of this device is inspired by the prehistoric trilobite, an arthropod that lived between 560 and 250 million years ago.

Just place it on the ground anywhere in the room, and the cleaner automatically starts vacuuming. It will finish its job without any human intervention in most (if not all) of the cases. Robot will use its radar first to find the nearest wall and vacuum all around the edge of the room. After that, it will clean the rest of the room in irregular stretches, slowing down when approaching a static obstacle like the couch or other piece of furniture, and moving out of the way of people, cats and similar moving "objects". When recharging, this battery operated device is stored on a charging station, so your guests probably won't even notice this high-tech gadget.

This is not the first "domestic" robot from Electrolux: they already developed a prototype solar powered robotic lawn mower which cuts the grass as long as there is daylight. The solar mower is now sold under the brand name Husqvarna. As the producer of 20 per cent of the world's vacuum cleaners, they strived to make vacuum cleaning easier and more user friendly - I doubt that something could be easier or user friendly than a vacuum cleaner that operates itself.

Others

There are other prototypes of personal, user-friendly robots that I didn't describe in this two-part series. One of them is Minerva, the robot that was guiding tours at the American Museum of History. You can expect more on this and more details on Cye (and similar robots) programming and hardware solutions.

   Similar site(s) of interest:

Previous Features