FIGURE 2.
and as a final touch, it released
negative ions to purify the air as it
cleaned the floors.
In mid 2006, Samsung
announced two new robot vacuum
cleaners: the VC-RS60 and the
VC-RS60H ‘premium model’ priced at
$945 and $1050, respectively. Though
only available in Korea at that time, it
has since spread to other distributors
for sale in other countries.
These newer units use UV lighting
to detect dirt and debris not seen by
human eyes. A remote control can
allow the user to override the robot’s
operation to re-clean an area that an
operator feels needs more attention.
Having the same connectivity as the
previous models, a person can call
their home and direct the robot to
clean a specific room using speech
recognition. All of these robot
vacuum cleaners are better suited to
hardwood and non-carpeted floors.
The latest (2008) Samsung
robot vacuum cleaner model is the
VC-RE70V from their line of Hauzen
‘premium home appliances.’ Figure 2
shows the VC-RE70 with two sets
of revolving brushes (similar to
Roombas). This new offering from
Samsung also uses a camera to
visually look where it has already
vacuumed and where to avoid on the
next pass.
Samsung is not the only Korean
company to produce consumer robot
floor cleaners. Microrobot (not to
be confused with the old US
experimental robot arm company,
Microbot) brought out the UBOT
robot vacuum cleaner shown in Figure
3. It bests the offerings from Samsung
FIGURE 3.
in that it vacuums, sweeps, and mops
hard floors in one pass. It also applies
an antibacterial agent in the process.
Another unique feature is that it
can read invisible barcodes pre-printed
on specially designed floorboards
to align its sweeping passes — a
technique Microrobot calls their “2-D
Barcode Navigation System.” The
UBOT’s larger battery allows it to
sweep continuously for four hours
before following the barcodes back to
its station for recharging. Like the
Roomba, it talks to its users with a
synthesized voice. The vacuum boasts
a 60 watt motor and is quite a bit
taller than the Roomba series.
There are several other Korean
robot vacuum cleaners such as the
‘Steamer’ that sounds a bit like the
UBOT in that it also vacuums and
then mops, but one that caught my
eye back in late 2006 was a cute-looking robot vacuum marketed by
the Korean company, ETRI. Called the
ROMI, it has endeared many people
because it seems to look more like a
robot than the flat saucer-shaped
discs of all the others.
Reportedly, not only does the
ROMI shown in Figure 4 do a good
job of cleaning floors, its camera eyes
and a microphone allow a remote
user to see and communicate by Wi-Fi
or through a CDMA computer link.
Though it has a hand-held remote
control like most of the better robot
floor cleaners, the ROMI can also be
controlled by voice commands. I feel
that its robot-like appearance will
appeal to more people as time goes
on, despite the inability of the ROMI
to clean beneath any furniture due
to its large size.
FIGURE 4.
ETRI also developed a strange-looking ‘penguin’ robot called
POMI (Figure 5) that uses artificial
intelligence and ‘five-senses-mounted
emotional expression.’ Developed
by Korea’s Electronics and
Telecommunications Research
Institute, POMI can emit two
‘unspecified’ odors (I’m not sure
what that implies), can create
different facial expressions according
to its moods, and should be on
sale now.
FIGURE 5.
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