Robot Vacuum needs you less than you need it

The Electrolux Trilobite is a small robot that vacuums your home automatically … allowing you to “live your life while it thoroughly vacuums your home”.

I’d heard about these things but never from a brand name vacuum manufacturer. Prototyped in 1997 and presented on a BBC program “Tomorrow’s World”, it’s finally coming to stores in 2007. I don’t think they’ve been working on it for the last 10 years, more like it’s being “reborn”. People are more receptive to the “robot vacuum” idea now and the technology is more advanced.

What do I mean by advanced? The batteries are more environmentally friendly. It has a flexible drive wheel suspension, four motors, and an LCD Display. You don’t need to put magnetic strips around the room anymore. It has much improved ultrasound navigation (sonar!) and will not bump into objects. If that’s not enough, it also docks and recharges itself when necessary (after about an hour).

You may need to add a couple of magnetic strips at doorways if you want to keep the vacuum cleaner in a confined space but this baby is smart enough to not know not to fall down the stairs and break itself; it has a built in infrared stair sensor.

Strictly from the household point of view, it has 3 cleaning programs - normal, quick, and spot vacuuming.

Is there a catch? Why yes, you still have to dump the dust box when it’s full. Otherwise it pretty much takes care of itself.

What about that other catch? Ah yes the price. About $1800 (cribcandy).

I found it odd that the Trilobite is named after a type of fossil, since it uses all this high-tech gadgetry and all. The explanation from the manufacturer:

The trilobite was a type of arthropod that vacuumed the ocean beds for small animals and particles about 250-560 million years ago. Its back was hard, and the trilobite is perhaps the best known of the fossils seen in walls, steps and flooring made of stone. This animal has lent its name and its shape to the new Trilobite vacuum cleaner.

You can see some less pricey (and probably less feature-packed) robot vacuums at the robot shop.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 10th, 2007 at 12:42 am and is filed under Cool Stuff, Gadgets, Appliances. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.