Articles

Tim Bock asked:




Many fans of science fiction can remember reading how we were all supposed to all be flying around on jet packs by the year 2001. Well we haven’t quite achieved that – yet. But we’re getting closer every day. One example is in the area of cleaning. The Roomba vacuum cleaner, which is made by iRobot, uses robot technology to clean your house. While it’s not quite like “The Jetsons” it uses many of the same principles.

First of all, it cleans your house all by itself. It doesn’t matter if its day or night. You can program it to run at anytime you want. Many people choose to have it run during the day, while they’re at work. It’s so nice to come home to a clean house after a long day at the office. Isn’t it?

The IRobot uses sensors to navigate through the room. It’s actually bumps around furniture and other objects while it cleans. Don’t worry though; the bumping is light enough so it won’t damage any important furniture pieces.

Some people question how effective it will be, thinking that a machine will never be able to do as good of a job as humans. While it’s easy to understand these fears, they are purely unfounded. The Roomba is designed to clean all types of floors, including hard wood and carpets. The sensors will also identify extra dirty spots and continue to go over that area of the floor until it’s clean.

The Roomba runs on a rechargeable battery. The robot will automatically return to its base when the task is completed, so after the initial set up there’s nothing for you to do except change the bags. Since we all seem to live a hectic lifestyle, it’s easy to see how this would be such an advantage. Who knows, maybe it will be the only vacuum cleaner you’ll ever need.

Robot Classifieds

Tom Hitchings asked:




When it comes to purchasing a new product or service, you want to make sure that you are making an informed buying decision, and that you are not simply wasting your money on something that you know nothing about. This is especially true with any product that is considered an electronic or an appliance, such as robotic vacuum cleaners. Reading robot vacuum reviews will give you an idea of how well they work, and what they can do for you. By reading reviews written by other owners, you can make a more informed buying decision on whether or not it will work in your home.

Robot vacuum reviews are a wonderful place to start when you are looking for your first, or another robotic vacuum cleaner. Start by making a list of the features you want in your vacuum and then compare your list with the list of features offered by some of the machines that are available. Once you have a list of machines that fit what you want, you can start looking at robot vacuum reviews.

It is important that you read reviews that are completely unbiased. Websites that accept advertiser money are generally biased to saying good things about the product, even if they have never used it before. To find the unbiased reviews, it is best to look for sites that allow actual consumers to write reviews on their products. Sites like ePinions or Amazon are the best places to look for consumer reviews because they have been written by people who have actually purchased and used the product.

If you fail to read robot vacuum reviews, you are putting yourself in a vulnerable and risky position. You might end up purchasing something that isn’t going to fulfill your needs. What’s even worse is that you might purchase something that is known to be defective a lot of the time, and you might end up regretting the purchase altogether because you will have to go through the hassle of returning it.

Try to purchase a machine that has consistently good reviews. Out of five stars, you should look for something that gets an average of four or higher. Read through each review and pay attention to what people are saying about it. Pay special attention to the cons of the product, as these are things that you might have to deal with in the future with your new vacuum.

Reviews are the best thing you can read if you want to make the most informed buying decision possible. You will be able to purchase something, knowing that it is a good choice instead of not knowing whether or not it will be a good or a bad decision.

Robot vacuum reviews are available all over the Internet for almost any model of robot available. Reading through these reviews will tell you almost everything you need to know about your purchase, and you will be glad you went to the trouble when you bring your new vacuum home and it works wonderfully for your needs.

Robot Sales

Tim Bock asked:




The Roomba Robot vacuum is a revolution in vacuum cleaning. Made by the iRobot corporation, this little machine does much more then it’s size would indicate. All you have to do it place it in the center of the room, press the “on” button, and watch it go.

The following are just a few of the advantages of owing a Roomba:

It does the work for you: This is self explanatory. Why would anybody want to work when a machine can do it for you?

No supervision required: There are built in sensors that will allow it to navigate around the room. It will travel in random directions until the carpet is clean.

Schedule cleanings: You can schedule it to run anytime you want, day or night. Many times people program it to run during the day while they are at work. It’s such a nice feeling to come home after a long work day to a nice clean house!

Cleans under furniture: Since it’s only 3 inches high, there’s no problem with it reaching under most furniture. The same can’t be said for most upright vacuum cleaners.

It cleans the floor 4 times: It may seem redundant, but it actually re-traces its steps. This way you’ll be insured to have a clean carpet every time you use it.

It will snuff out the dirt: The sensors will locate and concentrate on the dirtier areas of the room.

Edging is easy: The Roomba has external brushes that will clean right up to the wall.

Size does matter: At 3″ by 14″ it’s much smaller than most vacuums. Therefore storing it is a breeze.

RE-charging it is easy: After it’s finished, it will automatically go back to its base for recharging. There’s nothing to remember.

These are just a few advantages for owing a Roomba. But don’t take our word for it. Try one for yourself. Who knows? Maybe you’ll never vacuum another floor again!

Robot ConstructionKits

Alice Wang asked:




This should really be titled “Why I Love my Robot Vacuum Cleaner.” I’ve put together a list of reasons why you should get one. They’re cool. They’re robots, and they clean your house. What more can a person ask for?

1) The Roomba Really Cleans. This is something that an owner of a Roomba can see for themselves. When you empty the robot, all this dirt and dust and hair falls out. You may be saying: But that happens with my normal vacuum cleaner. Test it out. Vacuum your living room as thoroughly as you can manage, and then set the Roomba to vacuum it after you. It’ll come back with more dirt than you would expect. I’m not sure exactly how the technology works, but iRobot has definitely figured out how to make a robot clean a floor.

2) Vacuum Daily! Something that was unthinkable before suddenly becomes a possibility. Vacuum Daily! Why not? I’m not exactly what you would call a neat freak, but we have hardwood floors. Vacuuming daily keeps our house free of the little gritty pieces of tracked in dirt that can be so annoying on hardwood floors. Of course, you will need to empty your robot vacuum when it gets full and clean the brushes here and there, but that’s not a big deal. I would bet that if you suffer from allergies, using this strategy would be helpful, especially with pet dander.

3) Roombas Clean Under Furniture – It’s way easier to clean under furniture and beds with a robot. You can’t really get a normal vacuum cleaner under a bed, so you’re stuck doing other things which are much less pleasant, like crawling around on the floor with a duster or broom, or moving the furniture. A Roomba can fit under chairs, dining room tables, desks, coffee tables, and other furniture. Dust bunnies will be a thing of the past.

4) Watch the robot vacuum work. I will be the first to admit that I still find the Roomba fascinating to watch. I have found myself following it around the house. It will bump into obstacles, disappear under furniture, zoom over to stairs and stop, and then pester your pets. Complicated furniture arrangements like dining room chairs become mini robot obstacle courses. Sometimes the vacuum cleaner will take a while to get away from them. I’ll admit, it’s not as dramatic as watching an episode of 24, but it’s very amusing.

5) Roombas can be scheduled. Most of the iRobot line can do this today. We don’t take advantage of this much, we admit. For us, it’s easy enough to grab the robot and turn it on before we leave in the morning. Our house is small and the robot vacuum can clean a floor on one charge. We come home to find it on the automatic self-charger (at least most times). With the iRobot models that do this, you can schedule seven cleanings each week. If you have a large house, you should be able to come up with a system that doesn’t make you have to work very hard to get the whole house clean. One problem with this strategy is that sometimes Roombas get stuck. Once we’ve had ours get wedged under a piece of furniture. Another time, it got stuck going over some cords. The iRobot Roombas have special technology to help keep them from getting stuck on cords and carpet fringes, so it isn’t as much of a problem as you might expect. We were able to adjust our cables and furniture so that the Roomba wouldn’t get stuck while vacuuming.

6) Roomba Remote Control. If you get tired of watching it zip around the room, you can get more amusement by using the remote control to drive your robot under all those obstacles. This isn’t a totally superfluous option. If there’s an especially dirty area of your floor, you can use the remote to make sure the area gets a thorough cleaning. The Roomba is going to clean the area anyway, but it’s fun!

7) Got Pets? Get a Roomba. I love having pets, but I’m not so excited about cleaning up cat hair. If you’ve got pets then you know what I’m talking about. The hair gets tracked around and ends up in clumps. What’s on your floor ends up on the furniture. So it’s great to have a robot cleaning up all that hair. iRobot has a couple of Roombas that are specifically designed for pets. The current models are the 532 and 562 “Pet Series” vacuum cleaners.

It’s a robot! Yes, it’s a robot vacuum cleaner. That’s really cool in and of itself. I may not be commuting to work in a hovercraft, but at least I have a robot that cleans my house. It’s also something your friends will want to see.

9) Make Cool Roomba Videos. There is no shortage of cool videos of iRobot Roombas on YouTube. Click here to see a search on YouTube. You can join the pack and film your own masterpiece.

10) Get Your Mad Scientist On. iRobot has designed the Roomba and published information that makes it easy to be a hardware hacker and do your own diabolical robot experiments with it. Maybe you want to put a telepresence camera on it, or a nerf gun. iRobot has already put the hard work into building a dependable mobile platform. Now you can turn it into something cooler! See the iRobot Create for the Roomba educational system.

Retail Robot

Donald Grummett asked:




Like most people I really hated to vacuum the house. I
thought anyone who enjoyed vacuuming was close to insanity.
Well, I must be crazy too because I have started vacuuming
every few days. Why? Because I purchased a robotic vacuum
cleaner.

All you do is place it on the floor, turn it on, and push
the clean button to start it off on its cleaning odyssey. It
will circle a couple of times and then off it goes around
the room seeking out dirt and dust. Whether the floor is
carpets, hardwood, ceramic, or tiles – it does them all with
equal enthusiasm.

It is not a toy or gimmick. Rather, it is part of a new
generation of household equipment that will soon become
common. They are products that can make decisions as to how
best to accomplish a task. Not quite true artificial
intelligence, but definitely smart enough to vacuum the rugs
for you.

The two preeminent manufacturers of these vacuums are
Electrolux* and Roomba*.

The Electrolux version is probably the most sophisticated.
It incorporates eight ultrasonic sensors and some advanced
computer reasoning. It sends out a sound beam that allows it
to determine where all the objects are located in the room.
It can even find its way back to the charger when the power
levels begin to drop. Once charged, it will appear again to
continue the cleaning. When it determines the room is clean
it goes back to the charger, turns around, backs into it,
and turns itself off. This robot vacuum has been available
in Europe for a couple of years. It appears to be the most
complex of these machines and comes with a $1795 price tag.

The robot vacuum cleaner I purchased is the Roomba,
manufactured by the iRobot company. It is a simpler and much
less expensive version and carries a price tag of
approximately $249. Its round shape, bright colour, and
flashing buttons give it a futuristic look. At three inches
in height and one foot in diameter it looks like a miniature
flying sauce as it scurries across the floor.

It uses a bump-and-turn method of operation. Once
operational it goes in a straight until it bumps into
something. Each time it encounters an obstacle it turns and
goes off in an alternate direction. If an unusually dirty
area is found the vacuum will circle until it is satisfied
the area is sufficiently clean. This way dusty corners or
debris such as cookie crumbs get extra attention.

These little whirling dervishes of the vacuum world can even
deal with obstacles such as stairs, thresholds, and
transitions between different flooring materials. When it
encounters the top of a staircase it will come right to the
edge, stop for a few seconds, make a reverse turn, and go
off in another direction.

Since purchasing a robot vacuum cleaner I have gone from
vacuuming once a week to every couple of days. The results
of the increased cleaning frequency are quite visible. This
little machine has put the shine back into my carpets.

The only disadvantages I have found are minor. For instance,
the dust storage bin is small. The bin should be emptied
after every few uses to prevent it from becoming full. Also
the power brush can become clogged with small bits of
debris. This is easily corrected though by disassembling the
brush and cleaning the bristles. Roomba even provides a
special comb for this job. It works quite well.

So, if like me you hate the thought of getting out the
vacuum and pushing it around the room, then consider a robot
vacuum cleaner to help you with this chore.

Ladies, do you know statistics show that 85% of household
chores are done by women. So, if you ever want to get a man
to “do” (initiate may be a better term) the vacuuming then
perhaps consider introducing him to a robot vacuum cleaner.
The first few times I used mine I sat for hours watching it
operate. I was utterly fascinated by how it traversed the
labyrinth of my main floor living areas. To the extent that
I could hardly wait for it to recharge so that I could start
it up again.

Here is an interesting idea. Since all men like gadgets, “
Why not get Dad one for fathers day ”. That way he won’t
have any excuse for not being involved with the vacuuming.
Besides, It will pay him back for the toaster he got you for
your birthday last year.

* Electrolux is a registered trademarks of AB Electrolux of
Sweden

* Roomba is a registered trademark of iRobot

Robot Shoppe

Vasily Souzdenkov asked:




Give yourself a break and think about how much time you waste keeping your house clean and tidy throughout the day; especially if you have kids, and lots of them. The carpet is the number on place that gets struck in this kind of situation, so taking out your vacuum is probably the first thing you do when this happens.

Now the vacuum isn’t a small guy, he is loud and heavy and can take a lot of energy to use if you do it often, not to mention all the refilling and fixes you have to maintain every few weeks or less. The answer here lies in robot vacuum cleaners, which allow you to never worry about your carpets again.

Think about it this way, you usually clean your carpet maybe once a week more or less depending on your family size. Why is that? Simply because you allow the first and dust to build up over time and at one point you just have to clean it or it can get on your nerves seeing so much dirt being around, especially if you enjoy clean and fresh environments like me.

So why is the robot vacuum cleaner the key in this situation? Easy, because it does things gradually and over time. It doesn’t clean once in a while, it always maintains the cleanliness throughout the day, usually of course when you are at work so you don’t have to hear it or see it moving around while you are resting on your coach after a long days work.

A lot of people really never regret buying this tool because it saves them so much time and effort that eventually the cost of purchasing this once saves them a lot more then fixing broken vacuums or simply having to upgrade because the old ones don’t do the job they used too; trust me I went through 3 – 4 vacuums at this point, most of them crashed because of the rubber that I constantly had to replace which spins the brushes, they can easily get burned up.

So if you are serious about saving yourself a lot of time look into this product.

Robot Classifieds