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Dyson Preparing a Roomba Killer?
An anonymous reader writes "New Scientist's technology blog reports that Dyson, the UK company that reinvented the vacuum cleaner, is recruiting robotics engineers. They're looking for people with experience of machine vision and mobile robots that create their own maps. Is Dyson hoping to take on the Roomba with a much more sophisticated machine?"
It's called the DC06. This link is as good as any.
Everyone I know who bought a dyson regretted it. They were shoddy pieces of kit, incredibly shoddy when you consider the price.
Most vacuum cleaners will handle whatever you throw at them, our Henry has coped with brick dust, dog hair, dust, fluff, and being pulled and banged around the house all over the place. I know people who just use their dysons for occasional use who've had the wheels fall off the things.
Dyson's are a great idea, but I wouldn't buy one unless I hear they've worked out how robust comsumer devices nead to be.
Occasionally, I am one of those people, though not at your office. Backpack Vacuums are great for upholstery and even very dusty hard surfaces. They are ill suited for cleaning carpeted floors very well, though, because they are essentially just canister vacuums, they just suck, they don't have brushes to really pick up the dust. But they are rather comfortable to use, especially with waist and chest straps. Schools often use them because it is easier to use that to get around desks than a traditional upright.
I work for a large church with lots of big carpeted areas, and for that we use an NSS Pacer 30, which is a 30 inch vacuum that is like a lawnmower to use, but VERY effective. In smaller areas we use NSS Pacer 218 uprights which are 18" wide and do a good job, but whenever we can we like to use the 30 incher, just because it will leave a carpet practically spotless.
That's where the Roomba comes in handy. It does an excellent job of dealing with cat hair on carpet, about as well as my Miele manual vacuum. I set it off twice a week to keep the place looking tidy. I do have the "advantage" of living in a smallish 3 room apartment so a single Roomba does me fine.
The cats don't mind the Roomba too much. One of them will just move to another room. The other will stay in the room, studiously ignoring the Roomba until it crosses her path, then she'll step out of the way giving the poor Roomba an annoyed, disdainful look.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
I tried to find a definitive price (the article you link says $6,000) but I couldn't easily find one. I could, however, find a rumour it has been shelved.
Keep in mind that's 6000 AUD, so that's around $4800 US by today's exchange rates.
However according to this page http://www.roombareview.com/chat/archive.php/o_t__ t_2419__dyson-dc06-vaccum.html the DC06 has been canned because Mr Dyson wanted it to be clevererer. This is probably the reason behind the new hiring, the DC06 may be re-incarnated with more intelligence at a later date.
This has been a public service wossname
-Roomba, unsophisticated and unreliable
-Electrolux Trilobite, sophisticated and unreliable
-Siemens SensorCruiser(same vac as the Kärcher RC 3000), unsophisticated and reliable.
The roomba is well known, so no description is needed there. The Electrolux does room mapping with echolocation but has a bulky design so it gets stuck, it is noisy and on occasion it can't find its charger.
The Siemens is has two essential pieces - the robot and the base station. The robot is small, very robustly designed and quiet. The base station is not just a charger, but a vacuum cleaner that empties the robot. Its main feature however is reliability - it always returns to the base station. Basically it vacuums for a short period 20-30 minutes, goes back to the station, charges and empties and goes at it again. After the vacuum period, it has battery power to search for the station for two whole hours - meaning in practice that it always finds home.
At one time when I was on vacation, the Siemens was on for three straight weeks without failing. The roomba can hardly handle two hours without either getting stuck or missing the charger. The Electrolux can't go a whole day without a screw-up.
The big point with robovacs is that they can go at it for a long time. Sophistication is not a necessity as a semi-random search will cover the entire area given enough time. So ultimately reliability is far more important than advanced sensors and room mapping.
If you had read the blog entry (and the update) the GP linked to, you would've noticed that noone ever said that the Dyson hoovers were bad - quite the opposite. They apparently all received "very good" ratings; what the GP was trying to point out is that
a) The Dysons are not an order of magnitude better, as it often seems to be claimed;
b) In fact, in all tests, there were a number of other hoovers that were *better*;
c) In fact, those other hoovers were also *cheaper*.
So, no, a Dyson certainly isn't bad, but you can get an even better product for a lower price if you buy from another manufacturer, as long as you care about performance than about novel looks.
butter the donkey
Yes, Which? does its testing in its own lab according to a well defined test plan which they detail in their articles. They don't accept advertising or test products, just like Consumer Reports. Of the brands you list, only Hoover is widely available in the UK, and like the US, some models do well in their tests, others not so well. Typically Miele and Bosch consistently do well, along with Dyson in every category except reliability. Electrolux, Hoover and some other brands have some models at the top and some lower down. The bottom is mostly populated with the cheap brands like Morphy Richards as you'd expect.
Consumer Reports and others have not ranked Dyson anything more than average. I used to have other links, but that was 2 years ago when I was in the market for a new vacuum cleaner. I needed one that would clean dog hair out of the carpet without jamming the power head (3 chows produce lots of hair). The top rated vacuum for pet hair was the $500 Kenmore model. I bought it and I've been happy with everything but robustness of the powerhead. Fortunately, the 5 year extended warranty has already proven worth the $60. :)
:-/
In the reviews I read at the time, Dyson was at or near the bottom of every review set. Rainbows above $1200 were also considered, so it wasn't price that was a driver here. That link above lists someone saying something along the lines of "OMG - look how much crap came out of my carpet!" and somehow psychologically that states that the clear cylinder Dyson "cleans" the carpet better than, say, a bagged vacuum. Rainbow owners I know said the same thing, since you get to see the dirt every time you vacuum as you have to dump the water out. I wonder if these folks have ever looked into the vacuum bag after a single vacuuming? During shedding season, that's about how long a bag lasts.
In any case, the reviews that convinced me Dyson stunk were the ones that measured exhaust particulates. Dyson came in dead last in the class of vacuums claiming to have hepa filters etc. I was also turned off by having to dump the dirt in a messy operation into the trash. Same issue with the Rainbows, although they performed near the top for particulates. Something about sucking air through water really filters out a lot of airborne crap.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Vacuums with filters *do* clog up after a while. That's why I recently spent $15 on a new filter for my $100 vacuum cleaner (which we purchased 6 years ago), and it's good as new. We could replace the filter every year, and it would take 20 years to cost as much as a $400 machine.
A post a day keeps productivity at bay.
They already do - when the battery is low, it will return to the base to charge (only limitation is it needs line of sight w/ the charging base). And you can use the scheduler to make it start whenever you want it to.
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http://store.irobot.com/product/index.jsp?product
I have a roomba. I've seen it do something like this. Turns out some of the dirt sensors were gummed up. After cleaning 'em off, the roomba behaved properly.
No firmware upgrade, but the Roomba Discovery does that already.
I think she would be very happy if she received this http://www.amazon.com/Vibratex-HV-250R-Hitachi-Mag ic-Massager/dp/B00005M1WE
Self awareness - try it!
Anyway, I'm not saying they don't break, as noted above, mine did. The battery also eventually died and I had to buy a new one (battery not roomba).
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.