Suffice to say, iRobot has pretty much succeeded in running the autonomous floor cleaning robot, but after seeing its new Roomba s9+ and Braava Jet m6 devices, it's clear that this is just the beginning for the company. , 29 years. With these two new robots, iRobot is not only looking to increase the efficiency of cleaning products with new cutting-edge techniques, but also to increase their autonomy and ability to work together. Today, when you ask your Wi-Fi-connected Roomba to "clean house" through its smart speaker, it will wake up and continue its normal routine until the end of its life, which we'll call a day, with a Variable effectiveness depending on your model. Soon, when you say this phrase with the new Roomba and Braava setup, the two people will be talking to each other to sweep, vacuum, and mop all your floors in one go.
(Image: © iRobot) "This new concept of collaboration is based on a ton of research and R&D," iRobot co-founder and CEO Colin Angle (see above) tells TechRadar. "Whereas you used to say, Roomba, 'vacuum the living room,' now you can say, 'Roomba, clean my house. And the parts to be vacuumed are vacuumed and the parts to be cleaned. they clean up." That's what iRobot calls its Imprint Link technology, an extension of the Imprint Mapping technology that was first introduced in the latest i7+ Roomba robot. Users will initially set up how this app works on the smartphone app iRobot, determining which rooms are vacuumed and scanned and which rooms are cleaned.The robots will then communicate over your Wi-Fi network to determine how to get the job done as efficiently as possible and in the right order.If you already have a Roomba i7+, this new feature will work with this product if paired with a Braava Jet m6.
(Image: © iRobot)
Roomba s9 + - "The best robot vacuum in the world"
The latest Roomba represents an exponential leap from last year's i7+ model, four times more powerful than the aforementioned robot and 40 times more powerful than the Roomba 600 Series. According to Angle, the i7+'s battery life and motor power are respectively twice as high. "It's all about borders," Angle says. "So we moved the rollers in front of the wheels and widened them so that, compared to an i7, you go further and spend more time in the corners." You can see the Roomba s9+ taking a whole new shape compared to all Roomba's that came before it. However, it uses many of the components found on the i7+, just in the new positions. Some, like rollers, are also larger to catch more debris. Meanwhile, the sweeping brush has been improved to bring more debris to the edges and corners of the rollers. In the end, we're told that iRobot's machine vision capabilities are now powerful enough to forgo a perfectly round shape that was used to prevent robots from getting stuck on turns.
"There were a lot of challenges using this form to navigate the edges," Angle says. "We've added a 3D structured light sensor on the front end, so we have a lot more information about the geometry of the parts we're trying to penetrate, really millimeters from the edge. Mostly, it's about getting past the dirt in front of the reels, and all we care about is the spins. It's the only thing we miss. Frontier technology is a major asset in this area." In addition, iRobot has also gone to great lengths to improve airtightness of your robot's air vents and your cleaning base to ensure that 99% of what is collected goes into the bag. Why is iRobot so obsessed with this? Allergies "It's a bit of a complete systems engineering challenge that we're looking at because we think having a robot-powered home should be a boon for allergy sufferers," Angle says. "They don't even have to be around while the vacuum burns, and everything gets picked up and put in the bag." "The power, surround sound and anti-allergy design at the system level make it a platform for what you'll see from us for a long time to come," Angle promised. "It's the best robot vacuum in the world – it offers all the great features you love in the i7, from a user interface standpoint, plus more cleaning." Roomba s9+ is available immediately in the United States. The clean base is listed for €1,299 (approximately €1,020, AU$1,880) and for €999 (approximately €790, approximately AU$1,450). In European countries, the device will launch on July 12 with a base price of €1499. Additional clean base dirt removal bags are available in boxes of three, priced at €16.99 (approximately €14, AU €25) each.
(Image: © iRobot)
Braava Jet m6 - "a moment of exhaust for cleaning"
Of course, the Roomba s9+ is really only half of a larger set, with the other being iRobot's first fully autonomous cleaning robot: the Braava Jet m6. It is far from the Brava Jet 240 that you may know. "The leap in ease of use of putting the mapping technology we have in the i7 and s9 into the Braava seemed to make a lot of sense," Angle says. "The other thing that limited the usefulness of your little Braava Jet was 100 square feet, depending on the configuration, anywhere from 400 to 1,000 square feet. If your house has a hard floor, you can pretty much make your whole house." Since the new Braava Jet m6, with its new larger water tank and clean base, couldn't handle all the cleaning jobs, it would be a huge improvement. Like the latest Roomba, this Braava device features iRobot's "Maximized Edge" design, which allows it to clean against narrower walls and edges than previous iRobot robotic mops. This could be, as Angle puts it, as much "an escape moment for cleaning" as the original Roomba was for the robotic vacuum. The Braava Jet m6 is available immediately in the United States at a price of €499 (approximately €400, AU720) with the clean base included, while the European launch will begin on July 12 at €699. Disposable cleansing pads will cost €7.99 (about $6, AU$12) for a box of seven, while reusable tampons will cost $24.99 (about $20, AU$36) for a two-pack.
A crucial step towards a truly "smart" home.
"The next step after robots is the smart home, which I also think of as a robot," Angle says. "How are we going to make sure that we do what we need to do according to our life in this house? (That's) how motivated I am to continue this journey." This is an interesting way to look at all this smart home business, And perhaps not surprising for a robotics company: The smart home itself is a robot. It makes sense that the more we automate, or actually robotize, our homes, the more they become robots of their own…automatons as we please, ready to execute our whims. By working with companies like Google and Amazon on smart speakers, iRobot is becoming more entrenched in the world of smart homes. In fact, it is clear that the company has become so entrenched in the sector that it has already changed its ideology. "This smart home system approach is an innovation that iRobot pioneered: what's the lexicon for giving higher-level commands to 'vacuum' and 'mop,'" Angle says. "What do people want to do with these?" high-level commands and how can we make it memorable and intuitive?" We can expect to see more iRobot products in the future that continue to guide and even shape this way of thinking, but only engineers and programmers now know what these extended controls and even features will look like. conversations with them. Our smart homes. However, we know exactly who iRobot has in mind for its smart home ambitions. < p class="bordeaux-image-check">
Angle and his team see the Roomba line not just as a practical product, but as a device that makes independent living more possible. iRobot thinks less of the lazy middle class (read: this editor) than the elderly and disabled. "The long-term goal of iRobot is to extend independent living at home for seniors," Angle says. "Who said we could do that? No one, and yet we will. Roomba is already the most popular robot in the world for senior care, and it hasn't been long since. As we move forward, we'll see more and more of society that will ultimately enable people to live independently." This is the end of the "smart home" conversation we haven't heard from major providers of products and services, and it's refreshing. It's also not something you expect to hear from a future robot engineer from a general manager. (For example, Elon Musk doesn't talk much about the benefits of driverless cars for the elderly or disabled, in particular.) However, it may not be too surprising to consider iRobot's particular origins as a robotics company. The company's robots have contributed to huge projects ranging from the Fukushima meltdown to space exploration long before they even think of your living room. It is in this spirit that it is exciting to imagine the next step for the robotics company, or the maker of smart homes. "It's been 29 years, but in many ways iRobot is still a startup, and we're in the first chapter of what robots will mean to our lives," Angle says. "I couldn't imagine such an exciting and relevant place." Image Credits: iRobot