Electrolux Robot Vacuum Cleaner

An anonymous reader writes "Modelled on an ancient arthropod the Electrolux Trilobite is in stores from Friday and should cost around £999." It isn't the first robot vacuum, but they do claim it automatically recharges itself (which I don't think the Roomba does). And for only 8 times the price! A bargain. Electrolux's website has some more information.

Comments

Critics are not so positive...

[MrBoombasticfantasti]

I've heard these things kinda suck...

Re:Critics are not so positive...

[ThaReetLad]

so long as it doesn't blow

Re:Critics are not so positive...

[Rolo Tomasi]

Mood indicator light

A mood indicator light tells you how DCO6 is feeling about its environment.

A vacuuming robot with mood swings? Might as well get a wife ...

Handy hint:

[nicky_d]

Remember this quote from the article:

Magnetic strips must be placed at doorways and near stairs to act as invisible walls and stop it plunging to its doom down a flight of steps.

... when they turn against us.

Slashdot is for college kids

[A Proud American]

What's this "vacuuming" technology you speak of?

Very big news indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

This must be news about the US release.They (Trilobite) have been available in Europe and Sweden for two years. Very new(s) indeed.

Re:Very big news indeed

[matthew.thompson]

Actually it's from the BBC's coverage of the UK launch. In the US Electrolux use the Eureka brand.

Roomba self charger add-on

[GMontag]

Roomba has an add-on self charger. Around $50 if I remember, at Bed Bath & Beyond (or was it Linen's and Things? they look identicle to me when I get inside the door).

Finally the future arrives!

[doctor_oktagon]

Seriously ... this is cool!

Electrolux are a huge mainstream consumer goods company so that they have the balls to develop and market this is fantastic and it will spur others on, which will reduce costs and expand the market.

I'm 31 - when I was a child they promised us a life cast free from housework with more time for leisure.

While it's always been tantalisingly close, most products have been out of the reach of the general consumer, or produced by esoteric manufacturers that are not household names.

Now they are actually starting to deliver. I salut you, Electrolux!

Roomba..

[SteveX]

I have a Roomba, and while automatically recharging would be cool, unless this thing has some pretty amazing smarts, I doubt that part of it will work well.

The way you normally use the Roomba is you set the room up so the Roomba can't escape, and you let it go. It does the room, and then chirps when it's done (or stuck). If you don't lock the roomba into the room, it'll wander the whole house but not really get anything done since one charge (of either machine) is really only enough battery to do one room.

To automatically recharge, the charger would need to be in the same room as the vacuum cleaner. If you have two floors, or you have doors, steps, or other obstacles, I imagine that part of it wouldn't work so well - you'd have to keep hauling the charger around as well as the vacuum.

Also unless the AI is good enough that the thing really can navigate itself around a changing environment (hey there wasn't a dog there last time) and make it's way back to the charger before dying every time, I imagine you'd find a dead Trilobyte fairly frequently.

The Roomba normaly takes 12 hours to charge, but if you get the fast charger, it charges in an hour and a half. The fast charger is $69, but well worth it.

And if you buy it from http://www.hammacher.com, they give you a lifetime warranty! I'm wondering if they're going to regret that someday..

So unless this thing shows some other serious advantage over the Roomba, I can't see how it justifies the price..

And I'm not sure how they can say "While other firms have shown off prototype robot cleaners, Electrolux is the first to put one into production.", the Roomba has been on the market for a while now.

- Steve

Re:Roomba..

[tlianza]

I also have a Roomba, and that is my only vaccum cleaner currently. I live in a one bedroom apartment, and it is fantastic. The way these two machines work is fundamentally different, and I'm sure that reflects the price.

Roomba doesn't map the room with ultrasound. In fact, it doesn't map the room at all. It drives around starting by spiraling out from a room's center, and uses heuristics-based AI to decide when it has cleaned the room. It lightly bumps into everything to navigate around - there are no beams to keep it from bumping into things.

The self-charger is a good idea, and from what I've read the only thing that makes this vaccum superior to the Roomba (and does not justify the price difference). Roomba also can automatically detect a falloff like a stairway ledge, which this Electrolux cannot (without laying down strips).

The way you normally use the Roomba is you set the room up so the Roomba can't escape

This is true, but is also worth mentioning that you can arbitrarily decide where rooms begin and end because roomba comes with an invisible wall. You don't need to create barricades or shut doors.

It's a pretty neat little device. I sure as hell wouldn't be vaccuming under my bed and couch on a daily basis if it wasn't for this thing going in there by itself.

Dirty Corners

[uyfuyfuy]

Of course, being circular it can't vacuum corners, so you'll have to buy a seperate vac and do that bit yourself. What a fantastic design.

You know, Microsoft makes a vacuum cleaner, too

[Anonymous Coward]

It's their only product that doesn't suck.

Thank you. I'll be here all week.

Re:Unfortunately, the roomba isn't terribly durabl

[Anonymous Coward]

I've used mine perhaps 20 times since I bought it, and it has a lot of problems now. Sometimes it just stops in the middle of the room and beeps its "I'm stuck" sound, even though its not.

Have you also cleared the brushes 20 times? I didn't think so. You're supposed to do that after every run. Wrapped up hair can provide enough friction that it thinks it's stuck.