Posted by
samzenpus
on from the let-the-machines-clean-you dept.
omly writes "iRobot (makers of Roomba) just released a sneak preview of Scooba, the lastest consumer home-cleaning robot. It will be available this holiday season for all your holiday shopping needs."
Now I can have a robot to clean just my Kitchen
by
amcdiarmid
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· Score: 5, Interesting
And the one that gets stuck under the futon frame;)
Now, if it only did Windows;)
Its interesting that a company...
by
manonthemoon
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· Score: 5, Interesting
seems to actual be able to balance design and technology for once. None of their tech has been particularly innovative- they just are able to package it in a usable and not-too-expensive fashion.
Its about time that some of the sci-fi "future" is actually realized in practical home bound ways.
in the yard, kill dandelions and other broadleaf weeds without killing other plants
inside, find lego pieces and sort them by shape, size, and color
walk the dog at 6:30am or whatever unGodly cow-milking hour it is
take a constant inventory of my personal belongings as I leave them strewn about, and find my keys, wallet, watch, phone, TV remote, or whatever else I can't locate. Better yet, it should start the car, pay my bills, tell the time, have a phone built in, and change the TV channel by IR link.
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(i) yeah, I know they have these already
-- Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
inkjet company model
by
SuperBanana
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· Score: 5, Insightful
not-too-expensive fashion
Uh- no, they just figured out the inject company model:
"It uses a specially formulated Clorox® cleaning solution"
...which will probably cost significantly more than, say, a bottle of regular floor cleaner- which costs a buck or two and lasts months. What's so "specially formulated"?
Thanks, I'll pass. The roomba made sense- it replaced noisy, expensive vacuum cleaners (seriously, vacuum cleaners are expensive) and eliminated the work. This little bugger uses special, expensive consumables, and replaces two items which aren't particularly expensive (mop, bucket). Nor does it take very long to mop a floor- 2 minutes, if you include filling the bucket with warm water.
The technical problems with Roomba and Scooba
by
CuriousKangaroo
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· Score: 5, Interesting
I own a first-generation Roomba.
Problems:
Battery has nasty memory-effect... didn't use the Roomba for a while, and now it will only keep a charge for 10-15 minutes.
Can't return to base station to charge itself. This apparently was fixed in later generations.
Pet and human hair clogs it too easily. I need to remove the wheels and brushes after EVERY use and clean them. The charging station should also have a "clean" cycle, like some electric razors have these days.
Collection bin is too small. It needs to be able to empty its collection bin at the charging station (into, say, a larger recepticle that only needs to be emptied once a week) and set onto a daily program so that you can completely forget about it. Each day it vacuums, charges and empties itself and then you empty the main bin on Sunday afternoons. This would make the whole system totally automatic, and would probably solve the battery memory-effect problem, too, since it will get consistent usage.
When they get all this fixed, let me know and I'll get another one. Not until then.
How does it get the corners?
by
roystgnr
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· Score: 5, Funny
I can't see how that round shape is going to be able to clean the corners of my kitchen tile. If a vacuum misses the corners of the carpet, that's not a big problem - they don't get much foot traffic anyway. But in the kitchen? The corners are where every little spill accumulates!
No, I'm going to stick with my original mopping plan: waiting until one of the stains attains sentience, then negotiating with it to defend me against the others.
This was iRobot's first product
by
po8
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· Score: 5, Interesting
The odd thing about the Scooba is that iRobot's first product was also a floor-cleaning machine. I've heard Rod Brooks tell this story in person a couple of times, and it cracked me up.
...the company first partnered with JohnsonDiversey (formerly Johnson Wax Professional) in 1998, with the goal of producing a robot floor cleaner. Commercial floor cleaning is roughly a $50 billion business. Angle says that any floor-cleaning system involves three things: sweep, scrub, and polish. No machine on the market did all three at once, but since iRobot developers didn't want to build three separate robots, they set about creating one that could do all three. The end result was the NexGen Multi-Function Floor Care machine. The success of that project led them to Roomba.
If you read between the lines here, you get the real story: they spent a lot of time building this three-function janitor-bot with a big computer in the middle to drive it around the building. They then started showing it to potential customers, every one of whom said the same thing: "A 3-function cleaning machine? That's fantastic! Take that computer out of the middle of it and put a handle on for the janitor and we'll buy a bajillion of 'em!"
So they did. The hole where the computer had been made nice storage. Better yet, iRobot had learned a valuable lesson about disruptive technologies: small steps.
Slashdot Mirror
And the one that gets stuck under the futon frame;)
Now, if it only did Windows;)
seems to actual be able to balance design and technology for once. None of their tech has been particularly innovative- they just are able to package it in a usable and not-too-expensive fashion.
Its about time that some of the sci-fi "future" is actually realized in practical home bound ways.
"It will be available this holiday season for all your holiday shopping needs."
Just what I need to set loose on the upper level in the mall this holiday shopping season.
Hilarity ensues!
And I would've gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you meddling nerds and your cleaning robot!
One man's selflessness is another man's annoyance.
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(i) yeah, I know they have these already
Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
"Remove your shoes before you enter the kitchen. You have 20 seconds to comply."
He's not just the president, he's also a member.
Uh- no, they just figured out the inject company model:
"It uses a specially formulated Clorox® cleaning solution"
...which will probably cost significantly more than, say, a bottle of regular floor cleaner- which costs a buck or two and lasts months. What's so "specially formulated"?
Thanks, I'll pass. The roomba made sense- it replaced noisy, expensive vacuum cleaners (seriously, vacuum cleaners are expensive) and eliminated the work. This little bugger uses special, expensive consumables, and replaces two items which aren't particularly expensive (mop, bucket). Nor does it take very long to mop a floor- 2 minutes, if you include filling the bucket with warm water.
Please help metamoderate.
I own a first-generation Roomba.
Problems:
When they get all this fixed, let me know and I'll get another one. Not until then.
I can't see how that round shape is going to be able to clean the corners of my kitchen tile. If a vacuum misses the corners of the carpet, that's not a big problem - they don't get much foot traffic anyway. But in the kitchen? The corners are where every little spill accumulates!
No, I'm going to stick with my original mopping plan: waiting until one of the stains attains sentience, then negotiating with it to defend me against the others.
The odd thing about the Scooba is that iRobot's first product was also a floor-cleaning machine. I've heard Rod Brooks tell this story in person a couple of times, and it cracked me up.
PC Magazine, for example, says:
If you read between the lines here, you get the real story: they spent a lot of time building this three-function janitor-bot with a big computer in the middle to drive it around the building. They then started showing it to potential customers, every one of whom said the same thing: "A 3-function cleaning machine? That's fantastic! Take that computer out of the middle of it and put a handle on for the janitor and we'll buy a bajillion of 'em!"
So they did. The hole where the computer had been made nice storage. Better yet, iRobot had learned a valuable lesson about disruptive technologies: small steps.