Tag Archive for 'Vacuums'

Dyson Announces the City DC26

Dyson DC26 Vacuum CleanerWell, it’s not a robot, but it’s a curious vacuum cleaner, and seeing as how the Dyson robot vacuum cleaner (the DC06) has yet to appear, maybe now that there’s a really tiny Dyson, the DC06 is closer to becoming a reality?

The DC26 is the smallest and lightest Dyson ever created, and I guess that’s saying something because the company has a reputation for building huge vacuum cleaners. According to Dyson it was designed with Japanese homes in mind, and is a snap to maneuver and operate. Obviously, this would also be a great gadget for hip city people who live in apartments or condos, because it won’t take up much storage.

This tiny vacuum uses Dyson’s patented Root Cyclone technology, which has been proven to be better at sucking up dust than any other vacuum. Root Cyclone technology is what makes Dyson vacuum cleaners so effective. Unlike conventional vacuums which use bags, the Root Technology uses several levels of centrifugal force to spin dust, dirt, hair and debris out of the air. as a result, they don’t loose suction as a result of the bag (or filter) filling up. The DC26 also features the new V-Ball technology which makes for smooth rolling, easy maneuvering, and also helps keep the cleaner head at the ideal height from the floor to optimize suction.

So if you’re looking at the photo and wondering how the vacuum is going to work, it’s a canister vacuum cleaner. So the part in the photo is what you plug a hose into. Then there are various attachments, including a cleaning head that you can use to vacuum with. In Japan, there are three models. They are the DC26 Turbinehead Entry, the DC26 Turbinehead Complete and the DC26 Motorhead Complete

Apparently, to make such a small vacuum cleaner with Dyson’s Root Cyclone vacuum, the designers couldn’t just miniaturize the parts and expect it to work. The engineers found that they needed to balance all aspects of the vacuum cleaner, its weight, size, and durability, with the amount of space that is needed to maintain the airflow needed for cyclone cleaning. To do this, Dyson says:

“It took us five years to painstakingly compress and rebuild every single component before we had a machine that was a third smaller than its predecessor, yet could still tackle dirt like bigger machines.”

This vacuum cleaner won the Japanese 2009 Good Design Awards Gold Award in the Living category. The cleaner weighs a little more than seven and a half pounds, and will fit in a space the size of an A4 sheet of paper. The exact dimensions are: Width 320 mm × Height 266 mm × Depth 205 mm. Apparently, it’s also amazingly durable, having survived being dropped on a hard floor over 5000 times (presumably from more than a few inches) and also being banged against a wall 10,000 times. That’s quite a bit of abuse. The Dyson City DC 26 is already available in Japan and will be sold in the U.K. soon. The U.K. price will be the equivalent of around $400. I won’t be buying this one, but feel the need to repeat that I’m really dreaming of one of these powered by a robot. Yeah! Let’s go Dyson robot vacuum cleaner!

Published on January 22, 2010 in Vacuum Cleaners. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

In the Future, a Robot Gecko Will Clean Your Windows

Gecko Cleaning Robot on Glass Surface

Serbot AG, a Swiss robotics firm is designing what looks like a Scooba robot with legs for cleaning large solar panels. To accomplish this goal, they used parts manufactured by Festo. I don’t usually get into large pictures on this site, but this thing is really cool looking, and it’s rare to find such a cool looking thing that is also a cleaning robot.

I’ve never thought about this, but apparently keeping large solar panels clean is a real pain and can be dangerous. They get covered with leaves, dust, pollen, pollution, and everything else that falls on them. Solar farms often have to clean them at night, and I guess it’s not as simple as turning a hose on them. The photovoltaic panels are delicate, slippery, and usually tilted at an angle. As more and more solar farms are built with more and more solar panels, cleaning them is going to be a real issue.

This sounds like a great place to apply some robot elbow-grease. You just build (or buy) an army of these little suction-cup footed robots and equip them with brushes, wipers, and maybe a spray bottle and a vacuum hose? The cleaning robots are made with twenty suction-cup feet on two kidney-shaped carrier frames. As you can see from the photos, the carrier frames are chain tracks, which are attached by a bridge. I would guess that’s where you connect the cleaning devices. To move, the robot rotates the feet around the carrier frames. It looks to me like the feet in the center of the device are the ones that will be engaged with the surface it is cleaning.

Gekko Cleaning Robot Closeup

The robot is designed to know that it has reached the end of a solar panel by feel. Basically, if it can’t get a grip, it withdraws. While this sounds like a cool idea, I wonder why they can’t use something more sophisticated? They solved the problem of how to keep suction by making sure the robot is always moving. The feet which are in contact with the surface at any given time only keep suction for two seconds. This makes it so the robots can travel without using so much energy to hang on.

Photo Source: Festo

Published on January 6, 2010 in Cleaner Robots. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

iRobot Announces 5 Million Unit Milestone

In a press release today, iRobot Corporation (listed on the NASDAQ as IRBT) announced that they had passed the sales milestone of five million home robots. Five million! That’s a lot of robot vacuums. iRobot has been selling Roombas since 2002.

“This achievement represents a huge milestone for iRobot and for the robotics industry as a whole,” said Colin Angle, chairman and chief executive officer of iRobot. “We set out to create practical robots that help people accomplish tasks they don’t like to do, and in many cases, don’t have time to do. With over five million home robots sold, we have seen a widespread acceptance of this technology. This further fuels our drive to innovate and provide solutions that make a difference in people’s lives.”

The press release goes on to detail the achievements of the company and features of the robots which have propelled the popularity of its robot vacuum cleaners. Some of the features they talk about in the press release include:

  • The behavioral algorithms which make the robots clean floors more effectively.
  • Technology for detecting obstacles before the Roomba runs into them.
  • The low profile of the Roomba, which makes it ideal for vacuuming under furniture.
  • Dirt Detect: The robots sense dirt and change their behavior to spend more time in dirty areas.
  • Anti-tangle technology, which keeps the robot vacuums from getting caught on cables and fringes on rugs.
  • The spinning side brush.
  • Scheduling: So that you can have the robot clean your house when you’re not home.
  • Cliff detection to keep the vacuum cleaners from falling down stairs.
  • Automatic surface adjustment so that the robots can transition between different floor surfaces.
  • Round shape: Here’s one I haven’t thought about. iRobot says that the round shape of the Roombas helps keep them from getting stuck.
  • Home base with charger.

The press release goes on to detail the price range of Roombas, emphasizing that the entry-level robot is around US $129, and also mentions some of iRobot’s other robots for cleaning around the house. So the Scooba, Dirt Dog, Looj, and Verro. Here’s a link to the official press release on iRobot’s site.

Published on January 5, 2010 in News. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .