Servo - May 2009

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.