|
|
|
|
Will Domestic Robots Be A Household Item By the Year 2010?
Affordable residential
robotic vacuums & mowers are commonly available
Roomba (Rating: 5 out of 10)
It's rare when geeks get excited about a vacuum cleaner. But the Roomba line of vacuum cleaners isn't just a plain vacuum. You could even get away with giving this little gadget to the woman of the house as a present - without an extreme insult!
What We Liked:
We found it entertaining and novel for a robot. Well, okay -- factory drone. It's not exactly R2-D2, but it has a little Artificial Intelligence built in. Roomba's built-in A.I. means that it cleans without human intervention. Watch the Roomba in action: video clip.
We liked that it cleaned under things we couldn't readily reach with our traditional vacuum cleaner, or normally forgot to clean. We liked that it was affordable and novel. It is a great conversation piece - to entertain guests with as a novelty item not found in most households.
We rated it 5 out of 10, because it has a long way to go, technologically speaking. It is nice to let it clean a particular room while you do something else, instead of lugging out the upright vacuum cleaner and vacuuming a specific room.
What We Didn't Like:
The more we used it, the more we realized how fragile and undependable it was. It is billed as a time saver - but we found it's maintenance requirements anything but time saving. We pushed our traditional upright vacuum cleaner around the building in record time, without interruption of power and without having to clean it's various parts and brushes everytime we vacuumed. With the upright, we had to pick up some things lying around before vacuuming, but we did not have to rearrange ("roomba-proof") every room and put it back together again after cleaning. They even sell boards for blocking this unit from going under furniture and low lying areas -- in order to keep it from getting stuck.
The wheels of our upright were not prone to splitting rubber within 6 months of use like the Roomba, and we didn't have to wait 12 hours to recharge a dead unit, between vacuuming rooms! If we bought the Roomba's quick charge device at a heft $60, we could finish vacuuming our building within a half day! Depending on the size of the rooms, the floor coverings and the debris the Roomba is picking up, the fully charged Roomba may last an hour. Some have boasted 1.5 hours, but we believe that may have been for cleaning entirely unobstructed hard floor coverings. It is a good idea to get the pro or elite model, because it comes with a remote control option. It's easier to catch, retrieve from inaccessible areas or to shut off instantaneously.
This little drone spends a LOT of time bumping mindlessly into everything and cleaning in an aimless manner. A waste of time and energy. If the room is not cleared of obstructions, Roomba spends endless minutes trying to extract itself from tight spaces (or shuts down entirely when it is hopelessly stuck). If you are retentive, you will hate the way this thing cleans a room!
Like all Roomba owners, we too have named our little Roomba. It's name is "Giles." Anything that cleans with this type of methodology, HAS to be male. *smirk* Plus, the name "Giles" translates to "goat" - which eats just about anything when left unattended.
Still, we found it somewhat nouveau for it's time. However, we would encourage you not to toss out your traditional vacuum cleaner. The combination of a vacuum suction and brush cleaning system is a complimentary tag team for cleaning your floors. We found the best way to clean with the most optimum results, was to allow it to clean small areas at a time -- and monitoring it during it's cleaning process. Some walk away and let it clean until it dies, but it appears to do best when it performs focused cleaning. If a room is sufficiently vacuumed, monitoring it can save energy and cover more cleaning areas. You can pick it up and let it clean another room, instead of letting it clean only one room, until it dies.
It doesn't like deep or heavy medium pile carpets, especially if it has to transition to hard flooring. It eats cords and rug fringe, so that must be picked up pr secured prior to cleaning. We noticed it actually pushed items around, instead of bumping into and turning away from these items. Empty boxes and light weight items are subject to being relocated by the Roomba. If you are using it's "virtual walls," it is likely to escape cordoned off areas, by pushing these light weight items in front of the "virtual wall" infra red units.
Our staff mascot has a water bowl on the floor in the kitchen. We assumed it would bump off of this heavy glass bowl and move on. It didn't. It kept bumping the bowl repeatedly, sloshing water out onto the floor -- and into it's own cleaning path! Another staff member was washing her dishes at the sink with her shoes off and Roomba came up and ran over her toes. Yikes! It scared her more than hurt her, however it did sting a bit at the angle it hit.
iRobot boasts it is a great gift for the elderly, who have difficulty ambulating and can not get around to clean. It is, providing the elderly person can see well enough to clean this machine after each use -- and is not intimidated at dissasembling the unit for thorough cleaning every 5-10 uses. Because of sensors and it's exclusive use of brushes, the Roomba's brushes must be cleaned after every use and sensors checked for obstruction - and wiped clean if needed. Without intense maintenance, this unit will cease to function properly -- or altogether. Human and animal hair are the primary culprits for the need to perform frequent cleaning of the unit.
How does it work?
When Roomba starts cleaning it first travels in a spiral pattern. Its Non-Marring Bumper will contact a wall, or it may try to find a wall after spiraling for a while. Roomba follows the wall for a little while, sweeping up dirt next to the wall with the Edge Cleaning Side Brush. After cleaning along a portion of the wall or other object, Roomba crisscrosses the room in straight lines. For most of Roomba's cleaning cycles, Roomba repeats this cleaning pattern until its cleaning time has elapsed, providing maximum coverage of the room.
Roomba comes in three prices and styles. The basic for $200, the Pro for $230 and the Pro Elite for $250. We found little difference between the Pro & Pro Elite for the additional $20. Each style is a different color. Basic is silver, Pro is dark blue and the Pro Elite is merlot red.
Roomba has been designed to fit under the kickboards in your kitchen. If your bed or furniture stands 4" or more off the floor, Roomba will happily clean underneath. There are accessories for the Roomba on the market by another company called Robovations. Someone has even disassembled Roomba and showed us what makes it tick! And of course, there is a growing Roomba Community Forum, a hacked Roomba, and a brain transplanted Roomba now called Zoomba. The Zoomba™ is a Roomba which has had its microprocessor replaced so it can be used as a platform for robotics experimentation.Roomba's noise level is around 80dB (decibels). Not quiet by any means, but not as loud as a regular vacuum cleaner. It is interesting to note that the RoboMow is actually quieter outside than this vacuum is inside. The RoboMow is approx 50dB. Roomba's robovac requires more care and maintenance than a normal vacuum cleaner. Depending on it's cleaning environment, animal hair and heavy debris or dust could mandate disassembly and cleaning of the many parts, every other use, to insure proper operation. Of course, the bagless compartment must be emptied after every cleaning, much like a bagless upright vacuum requires.
Roomba competitor slated to hit the market in Spring 2004.
It is made by Samsung and has more artificial intelligence built into the robot. You can read about it's debut here.
The Samsung VC-RP30W vacuum cleaner draws a 3-D map of the environment to identify its relative location, enabling faster and more efficient cleaning of a defined area. A less advanced automated vacuum cleaner navigates randomly until it faces an obstacle, blindingly crawling the area. The smarter Samsung cleaner knows which area needs to be cleaned, with a much more accurate result. A user can also program in the working time and cleaning options in advance, so that the robot cleans the area automatically when the user is away. We also suspect that the Samsung will carry a much higher price than Roomba, making it cost prohibitive and aimed at a different market of consumers.The founding company of RoboMow, Friendly Robotics® is also working on a host of domestic robotics.
Surface cleaner product lines, domestic chore busters such as a robotic snow thrower, an in-house security and surveillance robot, and one day a "personal helper" that can bring your meals to the table, clean after you and even dispose of your garbage. Their vision is to provide products that are designed to be safe, effective, affordable and environmentally friendly. They have developed a suite of technologies for mobile, autonomous domestic appliances which includes unique navigation and payload technology, as well as safety and energy utilization applications allowing their products to work quietly and effectively on environmentally friendly energy sources such as maintenance free battery power.
Roomba Info Links:
Read all about the Roomba here.
Read a fast Roomba FAQ here.
Read about Roomba and Accessibility here.
Watch a Roomba commercial here.
Get your Roomba accessories here.
You can also buy the Roomba here.
A history of robots in our society - Written 1983
Questions & Ideas for your robo-vac:
"We mostly have hardwood floors., Is that a problem for Roomba?"
For hard surfaces, try attaching velcro to the back of the Roomba and affixing a Swiffer towel. Works even better than Roomba alone!
"I'm still curious how well the thing works in "high traffic" areas such as soiled welcome mats, the main hallway, etc..."
The Pro Elite can concentrates on high traffic area clean ups. Try the aerosol carpet cleaners before intense spot vacuuming. The Pro version also has a focused cleaning mode -- however accessories supplier robovations.com offers a good idea for restricting the basic version to a small area for intense cleaning or avoidance, since that version has no "spot cleaning" mode. Simple slotted wood pieces that form a corral. You can purchase wood at a home improvement store as well, for much less than the $34 cost of Robovations' slotted wood pieces.
Keeping your Roomba clean is the most important thing you can do for its battery and service life.
This kit is an example of most everything you might need to keep your Roomba clean. You could buy only a few of these items and have all you need to clean the Roomba, as well. Most of it, you probably have available at home.
We think it is a bit pricey, but here's what you get for $27.45:
__ Special scissors for removing pesky hair coils from the squeegee brush
__ Brush cleaner with two heads for cleaning the main brush - in or out of your Roomba.
__ Excelta carbon steel tweezers for removing dust and hair from the impeller and other hard to reach places
__ Hobby brush for dusting off the filter and crevices on the underside
__ Screwdriver for removing the screw that holds in the vacuum brushes
__ Cotton cloth for wiping your Roomba clean and also as a "changing bed" to catch the extra dust when you remove the filters
__ Polyethylene carrying case measuring 8-1/2" x 5-5/8" x 2-1/2" deep
__ Tips and instructions for keeping your Roomba running its best.We bought a toiletry zipper bag and placed the following inside of it:
The instruction booklet, a small flashlight, a screw driver, a large hand towel, hemostats or tweezers, a small toothbrush, small wire dog brush, Q-tips and a small pair of scissors for around $10-$15.
You can read an informative review of Monica the Roomba, by Wendy & Ian - who mounted a digital camera on the top of their Monica. It is pretty amusing, from a robo-vac kind of view. Video 1 | Video 2 | Video 3
Also here is a humorous MN Public Radio's interview.
Robo Mow - Lawn Mowing Robots - Our next forray into robotics will be this lawn mowing bot. It has been around for years and seems to be well worth the $700 price tag. Since we pay over $150/month for lawn maintenance, it would likely pay for itself. Not only is this machine more quiet (a mere 50 decibels) than the Roomba (80dB), but doesn't even require the heavy maintenance that the Roomba indoor robovac requires. Here is the FAQ on how it operates. Of course, a human is still required to do the trimming of areas the robot can not reach or misses.
Here is a video of RoboMow in action:
high bandwidth version | low bandwidth version | cutting edges
An udated version of QuickTime or Window's Media is needed to view video mpgs.
(Video courtesy of RoboMow)
Media Zines Music News Recreation
Whispers Resources Health Site Search Home Contact Us© 2002-2009 SilkWeb Designs - a division of MoonLight Enterprises.
All rights reserved. Privacy Statement
