Floor Vacuum Robot for $200 367
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."
Let's go back in time to the 1980's.... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Let's go back in time to the 1980's.... (Score:2)
Remember? The world used to be flat:
A: "I'll travel around the world!"
B: "But... you'll fall off the edge.."
A: "No, the world is round, watch, I'll prove it..."
B: "But...!" (feels tap on shoulder)
A: "See?"
Flat Earth Myth (Score:4, Insightful)
This story was invented by Washington Irving (yes the writer of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories) to show his contempt for the priesthood and for the conservative nature of the church and European nations. And guess what? It caught on and expanded to include everyone that lived before them.
Lets all ignore the fact that every time there was an eclipse that the shadow was round or that sailors from around the world would loose site of land as they sailed or that a Greek mathematician calculated the circumference of the earth and was only 52 miles off.
Jeffrey [ucsb.edu]
Burton Russell
Has a very short piece but he says it best with
"A round earth appears at least as early as the sixth century BC with Pythagoras, who was followed by Aristotle, Euclid, and Aristarchus, among others in observing that the earth was a sphere. Although there were a few dissenters--Leukippos and Demokritos for example--by the time of Eratosthenes (3 c. BC), followed by Crates(2 c. BC), Strabo (3 c. BC), and Ptolemy (first c. AD), the sphericity of the earth was accepted by all educated Greeks and Romans."
Re:Flat Earth Myth (Score:3, Insightful)
First off, Claudius Ptolemy lived in the second century, not the frst century.
Second, Christianity is well known for destroying and suppressing knowledge. That's why they burned the library at Alexandria. Galileo was arraigned before the Catholic Inquisition and forced to recant his heretical view that the earth rotated, and also revolved around the sun. However, you are correct that the Greeks and Romans knew the Earth was round.
My question is, when Columbus was ready to sail, did he sail from Greece, or did he sail from Spain, a country dominated by Catholicism?
Read the Bible. The conception of the earth in Genesis 1 is that of a single continent in the shape of a flat circular disc. In addition, the Hebrews were influenced via the patriarchs by Mesopotamian concepts (due to their time in Egypt), and via Moses. Moses was, after all, "educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" (Acts 7:22; Exod 2:10). It is highly probable, therefore, that the writer and first readers of Genesis 1 defined the sea in the same way that all people in the ancient Near East did, namely, as a single circular body of water in the middle of which the flat earth-disc floated and from which all wells, springs and rivers derived their water.'
It therefore all the more historically probable that the writer and readers of Genesis 1 thought of the earth as a single continent in the shape of a flat circular disc. The belief was that the earth is covered by a vault and that celestial bodies move inside this firmament. This makes sense only under the assumption that the earth is flat. This is reinforced in Genesis 1:6 and 1:7, and was commonly depicted in religious art, through the 1400s.
If second grade serves me, I believe Columbus sailed in 1492.
Re:Let's go back in time to the 1980's.... (Score:2)
Tomy had a line of robots called the omnibot line. Included in the lineup was a little guy called "vacbot" if I remember correctly. It's not nearly the vaccum the one in the article is (had less power than a dustbuster, would only work on flat surfaces,cliff avoidance was a simple switch that made the thing turn right)
Just wanted to have a short flashback.
Somebody else remembers Orbots?!? (Score:2)
Re:Forgot about robot cartoons (Score:2, Informative)
...And space comedy movies! (Score:4, Funny)
"She's gone from suck...to blow!"
Scrubbing bubbles (Score:3, Funny)
all the adds show them as autonomous. You just apply them to the bathroom surface, and they zoom around like they were at a 1970's skate park. According to the ads, they do a pretty good job to.
I always wondered why they didn't use these as the basis for nano-technology.
Vacuum? (Score:4, Funny)
meoooooow! (Score:5, Funny)
Fluffy? Where are you Fluffy?
too easy (Score:2)
sucks...
ahh, nevermind
Why is it... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why is it... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why is it... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Why is it... (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know about you but if that thing started running in my house at 3 AM it would end up out the window.
Re:Why is it... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why is it... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why is it... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Why is it... (Score:3, Interesting)
Consider the small number of sensors on this thing. If I remember correctly it has just a few IR sensors (used for following walls, etc). Mapbuilding in general requires a little more than that, and is also VERY computationally and memory intensive (for more information you might want to read about the most common method for mapbuilding, evidence grids [cmu.edu]).
Even if you were just to attempt to remember a) the location of your docking station and b) your own location, after half an hour of vacuuming (especially on carpet) and bumping into things, the odometry error that will have accumulated is tremendous -- you'd have no hope of knowing your actual location relative to the docking station. Normally a number of localization methods are used to combat odometry error (most commonly, Kalman filtering [mcgill.ca]). However, they all require lots of sensory input and processing.
So, if you want a robot that can plug itself back in (at least, one that can do so by remembering where it's docking station is), be prepared to spend a lot more than $200.
Re:Why is it... (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, let's think different.
We don't need a combat system here -- we're talking about one room. How about putting a blinking IR light on the docking station and a IR detector on the vacuum unit? Then program the vacuum to roll around until it "sees" the dock...
Runaway (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory reference elucidator (Score:2)
The movie Runaway [movieactors.com]
Maybe I'll get one of these things so I can... (Score:5, Funny)
Heh.. (Score:5, Funny)
Okay, dumb joke, but it beats the inevitable "That robot sucks!" jokes.
Re:Heh.. (Score:2)
Nothing sucks like Electrolux.
Associated Press report of May 13, 1998:
Man's penis severed by vacuum cleaner
LONG BRANCH, N.J.: A 51-year-old man seeking sexual gratification with a vacuum cleaner nearly bled to death when the machine cut off a half-inch of his penis, authorities said.
The intoxicated man first told police that someone had stabbed him in the crotch as he slept, Long Branch public safety director Louis Napoletano said.
However, officers who responded to Monday's call for help instead realized the man had hoped to obtain sexual pleasure from the appliance's suction, Napoletano said.
"But what he didn't realize is that there's a blade in the vacuum cleaner right under where the hose attaches that pushes the dust into the collection bag," he said.
When the man, who was not identified by police, turned on the vacuum cleaner, the blade cut off part of his penis. The victim told detectives he did not remember the incident.
Doctors at Monmouth Medical Center were able to stop the bleeding but were unable to reattach the severed part, Napoletano said. He was listed in stable condition Tuesday.
Goal (Score:4, Funny)
hopefully the researchers will figure out.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:hopefully the researchers will figure out.... (Score:4, Funny)
Because the research was based on a Slashdot poll! I mean have you seen Cowboy Neal?
Beasties (Score:2, Funny)
Then again, a $200 interactive cat toy might be a good thing, if they never get tired of it like every other one they get.
What about the corners? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What about the corners? (Score:3, Informative)
I had the opportunity to listen to an explanation of a similar product made by a competitor.
As you suggest, the robot does have a hard time reaching corners. However, when compared to a human operator, it was found that most people miss large patches when they do their vacuuming. It is just hard to remember exactly what areas have been covered (that and the constant urge of doing something more interesting). All in all, it was found that the robot covered a larger fraction of the floor, even if it did not reach all the corners.
Tor
Re:What about the corners? - 1890s fix (Score:2)
Wonder how the cats are going to react to this? (Score:3, Funny)
Sounds like a lot of fun for when the cats misbehave, though.
"Here kitty kitty kitty..."
Good idea, but... (Score:2, Insightful)
So you only get the floor mostly clean. Seems like it could use some more work...
That's better than a kid (Score:3, Interesting)
Now that I think abou it, the robot probably only vacuums area that it can physically move over, so after a couple months, Fibonaccinumbers come into play and you'll have a dust bunny population explosion. But that's about the same amount of area any kid will vacuum, except that kids will probably skip any areas that don't look dirty (even if they really are).
F-bacher
Small height, goes under stuff (Score:2)
Re:Good idea, but... (Score:3, Funny)
Well, to me, mostly clean is much better than the horrible mess I have now.
You can eat off my floors, but not because they are that sanitary, but because they have all that food on them.
Have one! Works great! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Have one! Works great! (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
combine this with photovores and ... (Score:2, Interesting)
The Fools! (Score:5, Funny)
Don't they realize the danger?
According to Professor Frink:
Elementary chaos theory tells us that all robots will eventually turn against their masters and run amok, in an orgy of blood and the kicking and the biting with the metal teeth and the hurting and shoving.
Re:The Fools! (Score:2)
Where is a slashdot editor when you need one. Taco, can you spell check "froinlaven" for me please?
Re:The Fools! (Score:5, Funny)
Professor Frink: "According to my calculations, the robots will not turn on us for at least 72 hours."
[Robot sits up on the table and starts to choke a scientist.]
Professor Frink: "Oh, forgot to carry the Y."
Re:The Fools! (Score:2)
Re:The Fools! (Score:2, Funny)
Do you have Old Glory Robot Insurance [robotcombat.com]?
Re:The Fools! (Score:2)
Right, and in steps Roomba to clean up the mess! You have just created the perfect marketing strategy for these guys!
Maybe I can get a job in Microsoft's marketing department (Shudderrrr!).
Family Test - LEGOS! (Score:5, Insightful)
Legos, flash cards, marbles, mcdonalds toys, stuffed animals with fluffy parts, video games and controllers, dirty clothes.
Now give me a robot that washs and folds clothes, and picks up kids toys, and I can use a Roomba. (And no Honey, you are not a Robot.)
That's bullshit.. (Score:5, Funny)
$200 ?!
I paid $6,000 (US) for my RealDoll and it can't move at all, let alone vacuum the floor.
Re:That's bullshit.. (Score:5, Funny)
$200 ?!
I paid $6,000 (US) for my RealDoll and it can't move at all, let alone vacuum the floor.
But have you tried fucking the vacuum?
Re:That's bullshit.. (Score:2)
If you bought your RealDoll expecting it to vacuum the floor the sales rep must have been absolutely amazing!
Pre-Vacuum Pick-up (Score:4, Insightful)
My wife does a lot of sewing. How well can Roomba handle lots of thread on the floor? How about pins?
The problem isn't the vacuuming. It's the picking up that you have to do before you can vacuum.
Step one (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Step one (Score:2)
Yes, we need a robot to handle that part of the job as well. I propose; the Slob-O-Matic 3000!
Re:Step one (Score:2)
1) clean up all socks, underwear, pizza boxes, AOL disks, rejection notices, banana peels, etc.
2) vacuum
3) Profit!
Re:Step one (Score:2)
I wonder .... (Score:2, Interesting)
Pretty low noise for what ? a vaccum cleaner ? cos even a low noise one is noisy as hell.
This looks like a ripoff of Husqvarna's automatic lawnmower. Only they have a 100% unattended one, as one model is solar powered !! http://www.automower.com/
Lazy (Score:2)
As soon as version .1 comes out (Score:2)
Now, when it can sort my laundry on my floor by sniff check, ill buy 2 of em.
I read a review of the roomba (Score:5, Informative)
in a local paper [newsday.com]. It said that the Roomba couldn't completely replace your standard vacumm. It doesn't do stairs, and it has no attachments for things like furniture upholstery, etc. The article basically said it was good if you lived in a small place such as an apartment or didn't have kids, but if you need to do heavy duty cleaning, the 'bot wasn't gonna repalce your standard vac.
yeah, WSJ had this weeks ago (Score:2)
no, it won't replace my regular vacuum, nor my vacuum with attachments, nor my steam vac, but periodically running it every couple of days to pick up all the kitty litter? PRICELESS.
Nit-pick (Score:3, Funny)
And, apparently, from the too-lazy-to-spell department, too...
Pervert! (Score:3, Funny)
Hmmm
https? (Score:2)
(not to mention the mismatched host and cert)
S
Floor VAX? (Score:5, Funny)
It's too slow (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's too slow (Score:2)
Re:It's too slow (Score:5, Funny)
silly manufacturer
:P
Real man's challenge (Score:5, Funny)
Geeks now have a vacuum cleaner web server!
First one to run apache/linux on it wins.
Re:Real man's challenge (Score:2, Funny)
Imagine a whole beow...
*/me tears like heck to save skin*
come on now (Score:2, Funny)
The First? (Score:2, Interesting)
Electrolux claims they were first! Trilobite Pressrelease [electrolux.se]
Asimov would have loved the company name... (Score:2, Funny)
My dogs will destroy it... (Score:2)
I'm just waiting.... (Score:2, Funny)
And just a little script in Perl.
Another Vacuum story? (Score:5, Funny)
(doan hit me ;)
This is Rodney Brooks' company. (Score:5, Informative)
For those robot geeks among us who did NOT know, this is Rodney Brooks' company.
Rodney A. Brooks is Director of the 230 person MIT [mit.edu] Artificial Intelligence Laboratory [slashdot.org], and is the Fujitsu Professor of Computer Science. He is also Chairman and Chief Technical Officer of iRobot Corp (Roomba) [irobot.com]
He received degrees in pure mathematics from the Flinders University of South Australia and the Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1981.
This guy is to robot-geeks what RMS is to Open-Source.
not terribly useful (Score:2, Funny)
Who made it (Score:2, Informative)
Vacuuming is the easy part! (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd love a robotic lawn mower, but don't think it would work very well on our lawn; we have significant amounts of landscaping, the ground is fairly bumpy (enough to make me sore after riding the lawn mower for a while), there are hills, buildings, dog toys, flowers, all kinds of stuff that need to be avoided. Do the lawn mowers only work if you have a flat, unadorned lawn?
What about stairs? (Score:2)
Hmmm.... (Score:2, Funny)
:P
Improvements. (Score:4, Interesting)
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 [robocup.org] and learn some teamwork. (Imagine a beowulf cluster [acceleratedservers.com] 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
Similar robot from ElectroLux (Score:4, Informative)
Trilobite is about 12000 DKK however, which is 1500 EUR.
Here's the Danish website [electrolux.dk] with Flash demonstration and some information in English [electrolux.se] too.
Isn't it typical... (Score:2, Interesting)
If vaccuming had been fun, it would have been l33t suXor or something...
What's Excellent Carma anyway? (Score:2)
I have something like this. (Score:3, Funny)
more than one of them in a house??? (Score:3, Funny)
We have one of these at work (Score:3, Informative)
Seems to be ill-suited (Score:3, Interesting)
First of all, it seems to only floors. And it only cleans "slightly" it doesn't seem like it will go deep into the rug and get that dirt out, it does not seem powerful at all with no adaquate suction.
In addition, it doesn't seem very intelligent. It works by sweeping around an area, then when it detects something, it will go in a circular motion to make sure it gets all of it up in that area. But it can easily roam off and miss a lot. Well, unless you give it a lot of time. In the video, they said it would take 45 minutes to clean the studio. Or a half hour to clean a small room. Do note, half of that time is probably finding the mess. That's probably it's biggest problem. Perhaps it should send out detection lasers (or whatever, the stuff that stores use for automatic doors etc.) to detect if anything is above floor level?
The problem with actually finding the mess in a short amount of time was so paramount that they developed little pods that you put around it, to cage it in so it won't pass them and find the mess faster. While that helps, it really isn't solving the problem. Ideally, you'd start it up and it goes straight to the mess and clean it up.
Right now, I'd consider the thing blind. Aimlessly circling around looking for crumbs.
I wouldn't recommend it. Though, there is very good potential for "iRobot" (the company). Check back in a few years.
Re:Seems to be ill-suited (Score:3, Insightful)
Just bought one... (Score:5, Informative)
It manuevers around and under everything that is over 6" high. So, it can deal with coffee tables, chairs, beds, etc. It detects stairs and avoids them. It comes with a virtual wall unit (you can buy more), that sends out a signal the roomba won't cross. When I first got it, I put it is my main room. It has a TV, a large L shaped couch, and 2 litter boxes. The room is 20x10. I eat in front of the tv, so you can imagine all that crap. I ran it in there, and I was amazed at all the stuff if picked up.
There are a few caveats, however. Battery life. You can only do "3 medium size rooms". My carpet is pretty thick, however. It is closer to 2 rooms. Plus, the time to charge the battery is 12 hours. You can buy spare batteries and a "quick charger", however, they are $60 bucks apiece. It is designed to do one room at a time, so you just can't put it up on the second floor and let it do everything. You have to put it into a room, close the door, and let it rip. It is not designed as a spot cleaner. If you have one really messy part of the room, you are better off getting your regular vacuum and vacumming that part of the room and then putting the roomba to work. The dirt collector is pretty small, so you have to empty it out after every room. Also, because of all the cat hair, I spend a lot of time cleaning the brushes and making sure the machine is clean. Unfortunately, it does not map out the room, so it may go over some areas that are not as high traffic as others, due to the algorithm that is uses.
My girlfriend thought I was nuts for buying it. However, for $200 bucks, (the price a of a decent vacuum) it is pretty cool. Now, only if it would travel stairs, do multiple rooms, have a larger dirt container, and plug itself back in, it would be near perfect
Re:Wife (Score:2)
Here is proof that we get married [slashdot.org].
Re:Wife (Score:2)
"You'll die alone!!!"
Except the batteries don't last long enough (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Except the batteries don't last long enough (Score:2, Insightful)
Let it loose in one room each day, then finish up the remaining rooms (if you have more than 5 rooms) on the weekend.
Re:Except the batteries don't last long enough (Score:2, Insightful)
is that without kitchen sq footage? what about bathrooms? i know some homebuilders add in the garage to their sqft measurements, do you vacuum closets? pantry? the tiled entryway? i know some people vacuum anything, even if it isn't carpeted, but we only sweep the tiled parts of our apartment.
probably not a whole lot knocked off there, and if you have enough furniture, i'm sure most people won't move the big heavy stuff to vacuum more than once or twice a year.
Re:Except the batteries don't last long enough (Score:3, Funny)
My question though is what about the dog factor. I have English Bulldogs that consider vaccuum cleaners the enemy...
Re:Except the batteries don't last long enough (Score:3, Informative)
They had one of these on demo at Brookstone in the local mall, and it made a hell of a racket.
It sounded like a combo between a cheap motorized plastic toy and a hair dryer. I really hope for their sake the one I saw was busted somehow.
Re:I wonder what would happen if... (Score:2)