Neato's XV-11 robot vacuum maps out your floor for efficiency, doesn't ask for weekends off
By Darren Murph 
posted December 16th 2009 10:26AM
posted December 16th 2009 10:26AM
posted December 16th 2009 10:26AM
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Finally what looks like a true competitor to Roomba. I like my roomba, but it seems very stupid on a day-to-day basis.
@JimL Yeah it looks good. Too bad neato is a word only Butters from South Park would use.
Do these roombas and shit make much noise?
@(Unverified) Yes they are quite noisy - that's why the scheduling is good to do it while you're away. My old Roomba is quite annoying in that regards.
@(Unverified)
They do produce noise - it is a vacuum cleaner, after all - but they are quieter than most regular vacuum cleaners.
I just want one to terrify my small terrier.
As it is, he barks at our Dyson.
@Dr Yusuf AlKindi I have a dalmation and a great dane.. both of them are not afraid of the vacuums (also a dyson)... however.. I suspect they would most likely attempt to eat these little robotic vacuum cleaners :)
Hell, I have a picture somewhere of my dane romping around with a full size christmas tree in his mouth... its hilarious.
@ljvb GREAT DANE? Dude, Brother Gadget lover, Big Dogs are not kawaii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuteness_in_Japanese_culture
Small terriers terrified of housecleaning robots are kawaii.
Will someone take way his engadget membership until he does something about those Roomba/Neato eating monsters he has?
;)
@Dr Yusuf AlKindi I too have a Great Dane and you obviously couldn't identify cuteness if it came up to you and put its head in your lap, then continues to release all the wait off it's front legs.
Ummmmmmm.......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_meat#Japan
Japan
Today Japan imports some of its dog meat from China, which amounted to 31 tons in 2006.[54] In Japan dog meat is available in Koreatowns such as the ones found in Tsuruhashi, Osaka and Okubo, Tokyo.
No, any country that imports dog meat covers up their barbarianism with a Vail of cute things.
Mate, dude, bloke, gadget lover, barbarian, get off your high horse, but then you would probably eat that too.
You don't really know "dogs" till you have owned a Great Dane, 90kg of pure cuteness, or to you, 90kg of stir fry. :)
@Dr Yusuf AlKindi a dog barking at a vacuum cleaner say one thing to me.
BAD DOG OWNER
You obviously torture your dog by treating it as a little human. Heads up mate, it's a dog and with a strong pack leader (dog owner) you just don't get these issues.
If you are a Doctor of anything you should have the smarts to learn how to treat your dog properly. Like a dog. There are multiple resources on the net regarding this topic. Use you intelligence not your emotion!
it looks like a transformer.
I wonder how well it will work with pets.. 4 cats and 2 dogs who track in dirt like crazy, not to mention shedding cat hair.
@ljvb
I also wonder about this too. How will it handle animal hair?
I know my cat would try to fight it as well, lol.
@ljvb I'm wondering the same thing, 2 dogs and 2 cats. But I suppose it's gotta be better thatn me cleaning everyday, I would imagine that I would still have to vacuum with a real vac at least once a week!
So this one actually is a VACUUM.
The Roomba is NOT A VACUUM (unless newer models are very different from the first couple of generations).
If it doesn't create suction, and instead uses brushes to pick up dirt, then it's simply a motorized broom.
@Hazdaz
That is a distinction without a difference. It picks up dirt. The method is not as important as the efficiency. A low suction vacuum is no more efficient than a good broom, and maybe less.
@Hazdaz
well of course a Roomba isn't a vacuum, a vacuum is an empty space
@JeremyBenthem
;)
@Hazdaz
I have the first generation roomba and it does create suction. There is a small motorized fan that sucks up dust behind the brush. It probably isn't very powerfull, but it does get dust up in there.
It needs to be prettier....
@Arkv2 I agree. It looks like an obese Japanese Sega Saturn console.
For that price it better do something more....
........ ...
Oh my... god damn it....
I don't know the details of how they are mapping the room, but I do know that I was thinking of methods like this, including mapping and tracking transient obstacles, back in High School. But like every idea I have ever had, I figured someone else had already patented it and forgot about it. Then someone goes and ACTUALLY pattens it...
I am patenting EVERYTHING from now on...
@thebline
That'll get expensive quick...
Death to patents.
those are some really nice cherry cabinets.
Hi majortom!
I was thinking the same thing. Beautiful finish and tasteful fixtures. Who can pay attention to some plastic gadget with such beautiful woodwork!?
there needs to be a vacuum contest between the iRobot, Samsung, and this new *XV*-11.
and it also begs the question...will it play pac-man?
i wish for once they would include some random household objects lying around on the floor, like shoes, toys, beer bottles and whatnot; no one's floor is that tidy
@mrqs
+1 I have to clean my living in before Rumba vacuums, otherwise it will choke on my cat's toys, get lost between dining chairs or eats a curtain...
I asked for a shark, not a vacuum cleaner.
Someone need s to hire a GOOD industrial designer...
Was it tested on poisonous snakes?
This is interesting.. I have two roomba but they mindlessly drive around bumping into walls with no concept of the room or how to clean.. its more like brute force cleaning and it has no idea when it is actually clean.. just stops after so much distance and time.
Why can't they make little transmitters that let the robot triangulate its position in the room and thus get better coverage. If it knows where it is then it knows where it has gone.
@LanMark you mean like the one in the article above?
@LanMark : "Why can't they make little transmitters that let the robot triangulate its position in the room and thus get better coverage."
Because that costs twice as much as just using a space-filling algorithm.
@tmarks11 The robot above mearly 'scans' the room but otherwise doesn't really have a concept of where it really is in the room. And due to the start-up nature of their business I don't think it will work all that well.. I mean how does it really know its a 'door' and thus not to leave the room.
Sounds like a lot of empty promises that are more on the lines of being too good to be true.
those floorboards are convienently high and recessed. grid or no grid, i think ill stick to my roomba 530
Some things I would have loved to see in this product (which is a vast improvement already over a Roomba): better UI / design. This thing lives in your house, couldn't someone pretty it up a bit? The cost is really prohibitive at $399. It seems like it ought to be $249-299. All in all, it's a breakthrough product. I hope they are going to do some killer marketing - otherwise consumers won't really understand how much better it is than a Roomba, which is really what the message has to be. Consumers understand (and are disappointed with) the Roomba.
This thing looks like its from an 80's movie about the future.
The Achilles heal of all of these devices is DIRT STORAGE.
I've had a few Roomba's and they need to be emptied a billion times - so often in fact that it is usually just easier to pull the damn vacuum out and do a once over myself. What they need to do is make an intelligent docking station that it can dump its own dirt out in.
It would also be neat if you could then program it to move to different rooms on its own.
Making the process MORE efficient (which is what they seem to be espousing here) only means I'll have less time between needing to empty the stupid thing.
@miloa:
You need to run your Roomba more often.
@DustinW heh.. maybe. I don' think a compartment that big will EVER be a match for multiple children and a wife with long hair! :^)
I wish Apple would make a robotic vacuum, but sadly it would be called the "iSuck". Ummm, no thanks.
The genius of the Roomba is that it doesn't need to map out the room in order to clean it, nor does it need 5000 H.P. suction. It hits every spot several times from different directions.
Sure you can load it full of sensors, but it adds cost and complexity. To hell with a display on the robot, just give it a BlueTooth chip and an iPhone app.
I don't mean to piss in anyone's Cheerios here, but a few observations:
They're a startup, with an empty website promising to revolutionize home chores with robotics... so they aim at the *ONE* thing that's already done, and done well enough, at a price lower than their opening price.
They do positioning sensors instead of random algorithms like the Roomba... The Roomba algorithms are proven to give you over 95% coverage... you've seen the time-lapse photo of the roomba with the light on top (http://images.google.com/images?q=roomba+path)... so they spent all their engineering time on a problem that didn't need to be solved. No mention of automatically emptying the debris bin and autocleaning the brushes or anything that might make it actually worth more than the Roomba.
I actually wish them well, because competition in this arena can only result in better products at lower prices, and their website's promise of a robot revolution in various chores is as appealing as the first Roomba was to me (I bought it, and the next generation). Hopefully there's more to them than the article here indicates.
@PathogenAntifreeze
"I don't mean to piss in anyone's Cheerios here"
LOL!! Ew...
THIS SUCKS!
as many flavors of cheerios as there are.. I am amazed 'that' isn't one of them.
I have to agree.. their video and information seems too good to be true and lacks a lot of details.. I spend more time cleaning the brushes then anything.. where is that info?
If this thing actually has suction that is decent then it might be pretty cool however can't imagine the battery life being all that great.
PEWPEWPEW!
Is it as smart as this Samsung Furot II Robot cleaner?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq5HZzGF3vQ