Why haven't they invented hoover robots?

gonedrinking

Given the advancements in sensor related technology in recent years surely robot hoovers are now a possibility. They should get their finger out.

Private Snafu

Eh.... You mean a roomba?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roomba

Silverfish

They have. Its called a Roomba.

We have one. It's great.

listermint

OP knowledge fail.

gonedrinking

lperrozzi wrote: »

Eh.... You mean a roomba?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roomba

Damn, and heres me doing it the manual way like a sap. I was shopping for a new hoover the other day, didn't see any of those though.

BrerWolf

can you get a roomba from a shop in ireland?

I'd like to get one, but want to buy from a shop rather than the internet...

Lux23

Oh the internet scares me!!!

s_carnage

gonedrinking

I must buy some shares in iRobot, they've only sold 6 million so far, everyone in the western world will want one of these

Kinetic^

gonedrinking wrote: »

I must buy some shares in iRobot, they've only sold 6 million so far, everyone in the western world will want one of these

How about you invest some time in learning how to google.....

gonedrinking

Kinetic^ wrote: »

How about you invest some time in learning how to google.....

nah

stovelid

Exploitable foreign labour.

Get with the times.

listermint

Harvey Normans have Roomba or similar try there.

Frank Black

Do you mean ‘Vacuum Cleaner’ robots are you specifically referring to robots made by the Hoover company?

CoalBucket

On a similar note OP you can now get the same for your lawn mower so you can sit and watch the tv while your house gets vacuumed and the grass gets cut.


http://www.autolawnmow.com/

Bit pricey at €1250 when you could get some local kid to cut it for a tenner

stovelid

Kinetic^ wrote: »

How about you invest some time in learning how to google.....

If everybody did that, we wouldn't have a forum.

black francis

black francis wrote: »

Do you mean ‘Vacuum Cleaner’ robots are you specifically referring to robots made by the Hoover company?

Seriously?

CrazyRabbit

Personally, I find slaves to be much better at cleaning. But, you do have to feed them every now and again, so it's more expensive.

Irish Halo

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Personally, I find slaves to be much better at cleaning. But, you do have to feed them every now and again, so it's more expensive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7eLoPD700g

opinion guy

black francis wrote: »

Do you mean ‘Vacuum Cleaner’ robots are you specifically referring to robots made by the Hoover company?

***looks around***

No pretty sure this isn't America

Jesus Wept

Look at the photo showing the route it takes to clean. Seems massively inefficient.
What do they run on?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roomba

Redonblonde

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh35GBU48Ws&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Kitten on a roomba...too damn cute not to get one. You know it beeps when it gets stuck? Apparently demand was so high for a cute little squeaky robothing that the company started making ones which didn't even vacuum and they still sold.

Burgo

Dj Roomba!

ejmaztec

stovelid wrote: »

If everybody did that, we wouldn't have a forum.

This forum would be a lot better if someone invented the internet.

syklops

The-Rigger wrote: »

Look at the photo showing the route it takes to clean. Seems massively inefficient.
What do they run on?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roomba

Carpet mostly, but it does wood and tile too.

vibe666

CoalBucket wrote: »

http://www.autolawnmow.com/

Bit pricey at €1250 when you could get some local kid to cut it for a tenner

"Auto Lawn Mow LTD Ireland proudly present their new 2008 state of the art range of fully automatic lawn mowers."

makes you wonder if it's not just their mowers with nobody at the wheel.

neil_hosey

hovercats known about this for years..

http://animalsbeingdicks.com/page/14

Monty Burnz

Kinetic^ wrote: »

How about you invest some time in learning how to google.....

I've had one for years. Don't use it much, it's not much more hassle to DIY, and these things age really badly - all the bits get worn to nubs that don't work, and the battery lasts about 2 minutes after a few years.

opinion guy

vibe666 wrote: »

"Auto Lawn Mow LTD Ireland proudly present their new 2008 state of the art range of fully automatic lawn mowers."

makes you wonder if it's not just their mowers with nobody at the wheel.

:eek:
That just sounds like a horrifically dangerous idea

gonedrinking

The-Rigger wrote: »

Look at the photo showing the route it takes to clean. Seems massively inefficient.

I guess in a few years you will be able to take a picture of your room on your iphone and then an iphone app will work out the dimensions of your room and map the obstacles, you will then be able to upload these dimensions to the roomba via bluetooth, making the roomba much more efficient.

vibe666

i can't imagine a roomba being terribly good at actually picking up dirt considering its small size and battery power.

anyone know what sort of wattage motor it has?

i just got a new vacuum for the house and its pretty awesome, but i don't imagine for a minute i'd get the same performance out of a farty little cordless robo-vacuum.

i also wouldn't image it would pick up very much dirt before needing to be emptied, given the size of it.

opinion guy

vibe666 wrote: »

i can't imagine a roomba being terribly good at actually picking up dirt considering its small size and battery power.

anyone know what sort of wattage motor it has?

i just got a new vacuum for the house and its pretty awesome, but i don't imagine for a minute i'd get the same performance out of a farty little cordless robo-vacuum.

i also wouldn't image it would pick up very much dirt before needing to be emptied, given the size of it.

It would also suck at getting into corners, since, you know it is round.
I can't see that the thing is functional at all, other than in an image sense.

gonedrinking

Its intended for more regular cleaning, you just set the frequency at which you want it to clean and away it goes. Presumably it needs to be emptied after every clean but thats not much hassle.

If it gets stuck it tries to reverse out, if this doesn't work it stops and lets out a sound to let the owner know its stuck and needs help. Would be cool if there was a recorded voice telling you it is stuck instead of a sound

opinion guy

gonedrinking wrote: »

Its intended for more regular cleaning, you just set the frequency at which you want it to clean and away it goes. Presumably it needs to be emptied after every clean but thats not much hassle.

Oh would you look who is an expert now all of a sudden! I guess you figured out that fangled google business after all eh ??

bnt

The-Rigger wrote: »

Look at the photo showing the route it takes to clean. Seems massively inefficient.
What do they run on?

It runs on rechargeable batteries, and returns to its charger when power is low. Friends of mine in the USA have a Roomba, and I found that it's best to just let it get on in its own way. Even if it goes over the same spot multiple times, it doesn't work at full power unless it detects dirt there. If you think about the things that you know that the Roomba doesn't know, it makes more sense for it to be "dumb", because "smarts" would just make it more complex to use.

gonedrinking

opinion guy wrote: »

Oh would you look who is an expert now all of a sudden! I guess you figured out that fangled google business after all eh ??

I've been googling, I've been wiki'ing, I've been youtubing. Seriously this sounds like the best thing since sliced bread.

syklops

vibe666 wrote: »

i can't imagine a roomba being terribly good at actually picking up dirt considering its small size and battery power.

anyone know what sort of wattage motor it has?

i just got a new vacuum for the house and its pretty awesome, but i don't imagine for a minute i'd get the same performance out of a farty little cordless robo-vacuum.

i also wouldn't image it would pick up very much dirt before needing to be emptied, given the size of it.

You sound like a hoovering connoisseur. I have/had one. The battery last for about 3-4 hours which is enough to cover the ground floor of a medium sized house or flat.. Yes the suction not very strong, though stronger than a dust devil. Also the brushes on the side sweep alot of stuff into its path. You can see when emptying it how much it picks up.

The beauty of it is you can set it to run every day, so unlike your industrial grade hoover which you drive around once a week, you are only picking up incremental amounts of dust/hair. I used to empty mine about once a week.

You would still need a normal(cheap) hoover, for quick things and spillages, but you wouldnt need to hoover very much any more.

DonJose

vibe666 wrote: »

i can't imagine a roomba being terribly good at actually picking up dirt considering its small size and battery power.

Roombas are great. We've got 2 Roombas, one for upstairs and one downstairs and they clean just as good as a Dyson. The part that collects the dirt is divided into 2, one for large pieces of dirt and the other for fine dust. The dirt collection part is pretty small so you have to empty it after each room. The Roomba will find its way back to the charger if its running low on power.

opinion guy wrote: »

It would also suck at getting into corners, since, you know it is round.

No its doesn't get stuck in corners, if it can get into a corner it will get out of it.

opinion guy

DonJose wrote: »

No its doesn't get stuck in corners, if it can get into a corner it will get out of it.

Is the word 'stuck' anywhere in my post ?
No it isn't. You misunderstood me.
My meaning was that it would not be able to vacuum the corner since its round.

On a side note . F**k me I've just seen the price of these things

DonJose

opinion guy wrote: »

Is the word 'stuck' anywhere in my post ?
No it isn't. You misunderstood me.
My meaning was that it would not be able to vacuum the corner since its round.

On a side note . F**k me I've just seen the price of these things

Sorry, got a head on me from last night. It does clean corners as it has a spinning brush on it that gets into the corners. It doesnt vacumn the very corner but its does remove the top layer of dirt, its great for wooden floors and lino too.

http://www.theroomba560.com/images/Roomba-560---003.jpg

vibe666

syklops wrote: »

You sound like a hoovering connoisseur.

my wife is about to have a baby any day now, you'd be surprised how quickly you pick it all up when you're running round trying to stop her feathering the nest!

DonJose wrote: »

Roombas are great. We've got 2 Roombas, one for upstairs and one downstairs and they clean just as good as a Dyson. The part that collects the dirt is divided into 2, one for large pieces of dirt and the other for fine dust. The dirt collection part is pretty small so you have to empty it after each room. The Roomba will find its way back to the charger if its running low on power.

i'm actually pretty interested now, although i don't think it would work for my house as i have a mixture of rugs, carpets, tiles and wooden floors so it wouldn't get very far without needing human intervention.

if i was designing a house, i'd be very tempted to make it roomba friendly and have it hidden behind a wall or under a sofa or something and give it a straight run through the house to do it's business. looks like i'll be pushing the manual one for a while tho, especially at those prices.

come to think of it though, my dad has just had his house renovated to make it more wheelchair friendly, so wooden floors and tiles throughout, all on the same level and minimal ground based obstacles or bumps so it would be perfect for him.

Victor

I read the thread titles as "Why haven't they invented hover rabbits?"

vibe666

Victor wrote: »

I read the thread titles as "Why haven't they invented hover rabbits?"

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/5723981-md.jpg