Roomba not sucking the way it used to?
Samsung sure hopes not, as it has just recently pushed out a robotic vacuum cleaner of its very own. Quietly showcased during
IFA earlier this month, the Furot II packs an oh-so-familiar design and sports an integrated camera and mapping system that enables it to find its way, remember its course and clean your floors with practically no human assistance. There's also an array of sensors that keep it from slamming into this and that, and the rechargeable battery keeps it humming for around 1.5 hours before petering out and making a beeline for its charging station. We get the impression that it'll be available in both black and refulgent red, though no price and release date is currently available.
[Via
Coolest-Gadgets]
posted Sep 15th 2009 6:09PM
I was going to post saying how this looks like a roomba.. then i decided to actually read part of the title and article.. needless ot say the wind was taken out of my sails.
Continue about your day..
Roomba's scare me...
Best first ever.
Maybe this will prompt Roomba to upgrade the mapping system on their dumb robots so they don't spend a half hour vacuuming the same spot before getting stuck on a dustpan. Yay for healthy competition.
Does anyone know if this has a Scheduler like the Roomba?
Only if it comes with ION.
Will it blend?
That is the question.
fitting it in a blender would be tricky
Aaaahhhh Samsung.
Always.
"Me too."
Hey, I'm not complaining.
Samsung does a damn good job of copying other companies' ideas and designs.
I'd even say that sometimes their product is better than that of the original.
A copycat?
Tell me if anything out there can do this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq5HZzGF3vQ
Why does it look like a ladybug?
I was thinking the same thing. I think I'll buy the red one and put black pokadots all over it. :)
I know this is off topic... but I've been refreshing all day for some update on the Zune HD! Come on! A lot of us have been waiting a while for this but Engadget isn't giving us any love! I mean, we get a new article for every freaking new ipod case but nothing on the release date for the zune! What gives?
Because no one cares about the Zune HD.
Love my Roomba. Gives my wife more time to do laundry.
Get the Scooba to give her even more time.
(Though she might get you a Robomower RM200 to get you to do more work also :) )
I want to! Some day...
Can it run Crysis?
no, but it solves the crysis of the spilled crumbs
will this thing bring me a nice margarita?
im in
The Roomba is a great idea poorly executed, I could see it working in a really minimalist household, but in my pokey flat, it has a hard time. That said, without it nothing would get done, so I guess its better than the alternative... Oh, and it plays cool little tunes when it gets pissed off - lets see you do that Samsung.
I have yet to own a piece of Samsung kit that *doesn't* play random goofy music.
I know right!
My samsung 610 52" LCD make plays a wierd and loud sound when tunred off or on/
@Cheesus.
You can turn it off.
was i the only one that read assistance as resistance?
I love my three roombas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1mqz4ZNcFc but I am really excited to see a real competitor in this arena. I respect Samsung as a brand, and have high hopes for this device. Competition always improves the breed! :D
Uh yea, you suck the best. LOL. Friend me.
This looks nice, and has some features that are much needed. The Roomba is quite stupid and does not quite "know" really where it is or much about the room. If it goofs up and you have to restart, well, then you gotta do it all over. If its not in sight of the dock it won't find it directly (I've had it run out of juice looking). Nonetheless, not pushing a vacuum is very cool and it does a very good job on the dog hair and such. I've learned its limitations and it works nicely within them.
I like the part about the Samsung going back to the charger and finishing by itself - very cool if it indeed "knows" where it is. Maybe it would do the whole house by itself unlike Roomba needing some help to do so?
I do really like the Roomba and competition is good. But, for those considering this technology, be aware that if you have kids or you yourself are a slob, you have to basically pick up *everything* off the floor first. With kids, we have to check under furniture for legos and such. Not that this is a bad thing, but it does add to the time.
That is not entirely correct Ed. The Roomba knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is (whichever is greater), it obtains a difference, or deviation. The guidance subsystem uses deviations to generate corrective commands to drive the Roombas from a position where it is to a position where it isn't, and arriving at a position where it wasn't, it now is. Consequently, the position where it is, is now the position that it wasn't, and it follows that the position that it was, is now the position that it isn't.
In the event that the position that it is in is not the position that it wasn't, the system has acquired a variation, the variation being the difference between where the Roomba is, and where it wasn't. If variation is considered to be a significant factor, it too may be corrected by the GEA. However, the Roomba must also know where it was.
Ugh... my brains. ^^
omg hilarious reply. Was this a modern jack sparrow???
I always wanted a Roomba, but could never justify paying that much for a gimmicky robot vacuum cleaner. Now that there is some competition, maybe it will drive prices down and increase innovation. I'm still waiting for Rosie from the Jetsons...
I'm not sure they're that expensive - I picked my 530 up from Costco for about £130, which was about the same as the decent brand drag along things.
still needs a bigger dust box capability than battery technology can provide.
I thought the Roomba was a complete gimmick until I bought one, I loved the cheap one so much I took it back and got the one with the built in scheduling and love it. Of course if company is over in 30 minutes I still have to get out the old Bissel for the Living Room.
Ever since iRobot started making weapons I've been desperate for a competitor to the Roomba. Thank you Samsung. Now, please don't make it crap or stupidly expensive. Hint: you might want to add a handle so I can pick it up with one hand. Thanks.
I'll wait for a review. At first glance it just looks like another Roomba. They're just too stupid to be useful. Mine constantly gets stuck behind doors which it pushes closed, hung up on carpet or other things it bunches up, etc etc. And I've had to buy a BUNCH of those little repeater things that CONSTANTLY run out of battery life in order to keep it out of rooms it simply can't handle. All just too much work for what it does.
If Samsung can improve the breed in obvious ways--don't push doors closed, don't push up carpets, avoid things it can't handle, etc then that would be a significant step.
And I'm not buying one just to find out. Somebody will have to say very encouraging things about this to get me interested.
My latest ROOMBA works great. My older one was nice also, but with the built in Schedule, I have it do the Vacuum while I'm at work. I come home, it's charging back up, I just empty what it picked up for that day. You think it's just a TOY. How good could one of these things really work compared to a normal Vacuum. I'll tell you now, I could Vacuum my place with my Normal Manual Vacuum, and them right after run the Roomba, and the Roomba will pick up a bunch more stuff. With the Beater Bar in combo with the Brush, it really picks up a lot, plus the Suction after that to get the really fine stuff. It works far better then I even thought it would. It doesn't Vacuum like a Human would, zigging,.Zagging all over, but it somehow gets the whole room(s). Besides, having it work Daily, or Every other day, your keeping your Carpet Cleaner and if it did happen to miss a spot one day, the next day it wouldn't. Not that I've ever seen it miss a spot. I forgot the last time mine couldn't make it back to the Dock to change. The first few times you watch it and see what you need to do to make your House Roomba compatible. Maybe that's a good thing.
Mine pretty much does that too. I did find it once locked up in a room. It was kinda funny, coming back from work only to see the bot not in the docking station, looking around to see where it got jammed only to find it locked up in a room with battery blinking red. That room sure got cleaned up, it must've swiped 20 times over the same spots. Since then, I made sure to keep the doors open so that it wouldn't be possible for the bot to eventually close them.
But I find samsung's features to be quite interresting. However, i find the 565's design to kick some major **** compared to samsung's.
The main reason I would be interrested in samsung's bot is that they are having better navigation (well that remains to be tested once it'll get available). Plus, it seems to have 2 side brushes which is nice but it doesnt seem to be able to get the corners as much as the roomba's does (super round design. Roomba is also round but not vertically)
Even without navigation, the roomba's are quite good at doing what they are doing but would be even better with navigation. Glad irobot got competition, means they might answer with a roomba that can navigate!
There is a video online that demos the mapping capabilities of this little guy and it is very impressive. I mean any sort of mapping has to be an improvement over the silliness that is the Roomba. They even have it going under beds and retaining its pose information. Thats very impressive.
I've had a Roomba for a couple of months now. I like it, but it does seem that some competition will bring rapid improvements to these robo-appliances. Breaking less frequently would be high on my to-do list if I worked for Roomba.
Hopefully the quality and customer service is superior to that of iRobot. I loved my Roomba 565, till at 9 to 10 months the wheel stopped working. Multiple calls to iRobot before they finally agreed that, yes, it was still under warranty and, yes, they will send me a new wheel. Multiple calls before the new wheel came (Rep actually told me, oh, we forgot to send it - for 2 months!)
After 14 months, the sensors died, and Roomba now goes backwards for a few seconds, beeps 9 times, and freezes. It's now a $300 doorstop. Roomba tells me to "just get a new one". Browsing Roomba forums I see this is a common problem.
Just like I got burnt by the Storm 1, I got burnt by iRobot. I won't touch the Storm 2 and I won't touch another Roomba.
This Samsung, which seems to be an international version of the Samsung Hauzen, looks like the thing for me!
RIM are outsourcing their Storm production to iRobot now?
Seems already available in Italy for 499 euro (about 730 US$): http://www.euronics.it/acquistaonline/pulizia-casa/aspirapolvere-robot/sr9630/prod902006470.html
Holy, 730$ !!! I think i prefer to stick to my 350$ "dumb" roomba
On ebay its less than $500.
This is not the 1st generation from Samsung. The first generation (Samsung Hauzen RE70V) was released some years ago, then they improved it with the Samsung Hauzen RE72V and finally they released the SR9630 (which seems like a RE72V with the alarm warnings translated). This Furot II seems like the last generation, so maybe they just changed its name in order to sell it worldwide.
By the way, this robot kicks Roomba's ass. It's clearly more intelligent, you can search in youtube if you need proof.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py6-Z5T0Mrc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjbMBndAC-8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq5HZzGF3vQ
that last link is ASTOUNDING
I've seen this robot in action while I was at a friends house in Korea. It is VERY intelligent. Its mapping system is nothing like Roomba's brute force method of going over paths over and over and over until the whole room is vacuumed. This not only wastes time, but also energy (short battery life).
This Samsung robot however, like you see on the videos, does it sequentially. It breaks the rooms into even smaller rooms and goes about its business remembering where it was BEFORE it goes into another room. I was pretty amazed with this capability.
And this isnt Samsung's first robot cleaner. Matter of fact its I believe a 3rd or 4th generation version. The price has come down pretty dramatically as well.
Here is how the mapping system works:
Video with mapping system (picture in picture format)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq5HZzGF3vQ&feature=related
Also another video showing a Visual SLAM algorithm working with camera in tow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNxmgQ2gofE&NR=1
This robot makes Roomba look like Windows 3.1
Official video from Samsung's Italy site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JHDAQ6jmz4&feature=related