A Peek Inside
the
NEATO XV- 11
by Bryan Bergeron
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www.servomagazine.com/index.php?/magazine/article/february2012_Bergeron
Of the practical
applications of robotics in
the home, the robot
vacuum cleaner is the most
prominent. Whisking away
the crumbs of daily activity
certainly qualifies for at
least two of the tasks
robots are good at – the
dull and dirty. Join me for
a teardown of the NEATO
XV- 11 home vacuum
cleaner, from NEATO
Robotics ( www.neato
robotics.com) of Palo Alto, CA. The robot and wall charger unit are shown in
Figure 1.
FIGURE 1.
NEATO XV- 11
and wall
charger unit.
Overview
As home robot vacuum cleaners go, the NEATO is
priced in the upper range of automated cleaners from
iRobot and others. Amazon lists the XV- 11 at $390.
Although the folks at NEATO would love for me to
comment on the relative efficacy of the NEATO as a room
vacuum cleaner, I won’t. If you’re an avid SERVO reader,
you’re not looking at this article for advice on which robot
vac is best at picking up cat hair, but which would make
the best platform for experimentation and for harvesting
parts.
The NEATO doesn’t disappoint on these latter two
categories. The piece de resistance of the NEATO is a light
radar or LIDAR with full 360 degree coverage. In
40 SERVO 02.2012
comparison, several years ago I paid nearly $2,500 for a
Hokuyo URG-04LX LIDAR for my rover, and it only provides
240 degree coverage with a range of 12 feet. More on the
LIDAR later – let’s get to the teardown.
Teardown
If you’ve read my book on Teardowns [1], you know
that I give the physical layout and construction of a device
as much emphasis as the underlying electronic design. I’ve
found everything from trails of hot glue, cold solder joints,
and bits of waste plastic, to loose screws and hair in
teardowns. These and similar findings point to cost-cutting
maneuvers by the manufacturer, and suggest the electronic
components aren’t first rate. However, that’s one of the
