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Floor Vacuum Robot for $200
abhikhurana writes "MSNBC is running a review of Roomba,
supposedly the first intelligent 'floor vac', as in a cross between vacuum
cleaner and a robot. I think its especially suited for lazy bums like me. Just
let it loose, sitback and enjoy. There is also a video of how it cleans the
floors, which requires windows media player (what else?) to watch it. It seems
that the robo cleaner can indeed do that job for which it has been designed. A
related article on
Techreview has slightly more details
about how it works. There is also a website exclusively for
Roomba."
Remember? Robots were going to do EVERYTHING in the 70's and 80's.
They were going to help us! Everything was robot this, robot that.
Bring us drinks, cut the lawn (solar power!), vaccuum....
I'm going to go read all my back issues of Popular Science, I'll find a robot lawn mower or two.
There was a blurb on the Roomba in this month's What's New section of PopSci. They quoted a battery time of 90 minutes, which to me seems like WAY more than enough time to vacuum. However, the blurb said that it can only do 2 10x20 rooms in that amount of time. Well, I don't know what everyone lives in, but it would take this thing all day to vacuum my house which measures in at about 2000 sq. ft, and I for one wouldn't want to hear a vacuum running all day. And I can't just let the thing run all day at work, since the batteries only last 90 min! Guess I'll be vacuuming the old way for some time to come still....
Geek used to be a four letter word. Now it's a six-figure one.
It doesn't actually remember the room. It uses a variation on the wandering drunk pattern, but the practical upshot is it should finish in a couple of hours. Part of why it's so cheap - it doesn't have to "learn the room", you just put it down and walk away. From what I've read on it, the price point is paramount... for $200, I'm damn tempted.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
Less than half an acre, since that's all the robomower is designed for.
If, however, he bought it a couple years ago I might buy a hundred hours saved.
Looked at one of the robotic mowers a few months ago, but they only work well if you have a single contiguous area of lawn, with no narrow sections. I have three separate lawn areas, which would require buying two additional power stations and manually moving the robomower between each section. No thanks.
These guys should hire some programmers (and engineers) from The Robomower Company... The mower can handle a quarter acre with all kinds of obstructions...
Also on my wishlist:
1. Return-to-base self-charging.
2. Return-to-base dust bin emtpying.
3. Environment learning. It could develop a map of the floor, and keep track of the dirt collected in different areas. Then it could do a daily cleaning of the high-traffic areas, and do occasional full passes.
4. Take some lessons from Robot Soccer and learn some teamwork. (Imagine a beowulf cluster of these!)
5. Remote Interface with an X10 burglar alarm. (Although "Release the vacuums!" just doesn't have the same ring as "release the hounds!)
--sg
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