ASUS ECleaner is ready to rumble with the Roomba

Judging by the comparative explosion of robo vacuum releases this month, you might think 2010 is all set to be the year of the automated floor sanitizer. Augmenting that impression is ASUS, who has now made its heavyweight presence known with the newly announced ECleaner, to be released under the AGAiT brand. This new bot comes with a UV light for disinfection, a fragrance slot, the usual photo sensor to prevent it from falling off a cliff, and naturally a remote control for the hands-on househusband. The biggest attraction though -- beyond that killer paintjob -- is likely to be the $150 price tag, which significantly undercuts most of what's out on the market right now. Video of the little spherical hipster lies after the break.

See more video at our hub!

[CommentsTroll Posted Dec 25th 2009 6:37AM]

EeeCleaner?

[E71 Posted Dec 25th 2009 10:22AM]

I'm betting Neato's one is going to be the most Neato.

[Jon Rubinsteine Posted Dec 25th 2009 12:33PM]

@CommentsTroll

Cleeener actually,

Its going to have a 1.6ghz Intel Atom, 1gb ram and their going to put vista on it, which means it'll have finished estimating the time it'll take to clean the room about 2 days after you turn it on.

[GeekGirl Posted Dec 25th 2009 7:00AM]

I am in for 1:) love my dyson but love the robots.

[Jason Murray Posted Dec 25th 2009 7:05AM]

As much as I see lots of posts of people enjoying and hacking their Roombas, I just want something to vacuum and can't justify the high price attached to it.

This looks like it'll be a buy when its released.

(Mind you, I'll probably forget and then continue to apologise to guests for the state of my floor)

[satish Posted Dec 25th 2009 7:15AM]

i also see patent related law suits from irobot

[Wwhat Posted Dec 25th 2009 7:15AM]

The irony is that it's most attractive to gadgetlovers, but those often have cables on the floor, and I don't think that would end well.

[Ahmed Alzayani Posted Dec 25th 2009 7:23AM]

Time traveler> So which years is this?
Man>2010.
Time traveler>Wow, so tell me how the future feel like, by now you must have servant robots,flying cars, and space ships the travel near the speed of light.
Man>No, not really ... we don't have any of these.
Time traveler>no servant robots! not robots at all!
Man>we do have vacuum disk we call ecleaner.
Time traveler>??!
[Time traveler goes back to the1950's]

[Wwhat Posted Dec 25th 2009 2:17PM]

Phew, good thing we scared him away before he found out there's a black guy in the white house eh, those '50 guys tend to go ballistic, nuclear even, when they find out.

[gp Posted Dec 25th 2009 7:21PM]

@Wwhat

A close-minded guy from the 50s that couldn't conceive of a black president wouldn't be asking about servant robots; he'd be asking how many black servants you are allowed to keep.

[gp Posted Dec 25th 2009 7:43PM]

@Wwhat

Sorry, I meant black *slaves*

[Wwhat Posted Dec 26th 2009 8:21AM]

@gp
Lol, it's the 1950's not 1850's, so yes on the servants but no on the slaves, although, many people had a concept of women very similar to slaves..

And my comment was subtly saying that at least we made some advances in the areas of phasing out racism a bit.
But the technology visions from the 50's did indeed not pan out at all, in fact they had vacuums that drive themselves around in 50's movies, ones that did not play in the future, although then they just looked like normal vacuums, the standing ones, but it's true that the development in that area is damn slow, they could have made roomba(-clones) back then with then existing technology really, although powering them would be an issue, and they'd be build in the US and much bigger and heavier I guess :) And be made from metal.

[NeoDarkSaver Posted Dec 25th 2009 7:29AM]

at least it's not named EeeCleaner.

[rederikus Posted Dec 25th 2009 1:37PM]

@NeoDarkSaver

Yup, coulda been the Eeek-leaner

[FractureReality Posted Dec 25th 2009 7:33AM]

Personally I wasn't aware that FLAT disc and "spherical" hipster had become synonymous

[Cy Starkman Posted Dec 25th 2009 1:06PM]

I also found the whole disc sphere thing....

Educational? Hmmm

[Dr Yusuf AlKindi Posted Dec 25th 2009 7:36AM]

Oh! That poor frightened Chihuahua on the coach!

PETA will protest these devices

[dieterk Posted Dec 25th 2009 7:54AM]

When will it be on the US market? Or any other market?

When can I buy it? Anyone?

[NameIsDavid Posted Dec 25th 2009 10:02AM]

[Personally I wasn't aware that FLAT disc and "spherical" hipster had become synonymous]

Yeah, it is a pretty naive mistake for a tech blog.

[vikiperalez83 Posted Dec 25th 2009 10:04AM]

test

[zmokin Posted Dec 25th 2009 10:10AM]

Sure seems to miss a lot of spots....

[darex Posted Dec 25th 2009 10:25AM]

It appear to be extremely similar to the Roomba, which means that it will also require 20 minutes to clean all the dog hair wrapped around the brush and wheel bearings. Until that phenomenon is conquered, these robot vacuums won't do the trick, sadly.

I retired my Roomba for this reason.

[Wwhat Posted Dec 26th 2009 8:24AM]

I hear there is a breed of dog that doesn't shed, it's popular with people who are allergic but still want a dog.
Doesn't help you of course, but it's an interesting tidbit I thought when I heard.

[ConceptVBS Posted Dec 25th 2009 11:07AM]

This Samsung robot vacuum cleaner is the most advanced in the world:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq5HZzGF3vQ

[JeremyBenthem Posted Dec 25th 2009 12:29PM]

you can get Roombas for $130 on woot every other week

[surgex Posted Dec 25th 2009 1:20PM]

@JeremyBenthem
There are so many problems with Roombas though, especially with carpetted rooms. Whether or not this device addresses the issues the Roomba has...we'll have to wait and see...I was going to get a Roomba for Christmas, but after talking to a co-worker and hearing that he has to clean the brushes on his twice a week or else they get clogged, and replace the battery every 9 months, I decided against it.
The Neato will probably be better than this ASUS one, but it will still be something to check out nonetheless.

[JeremyBenthem Posted Dec 25th 2009 2:35PM]

@surgex
luckily I hate carpets, anyway there are a bunch of different roombas, plus they've gone through a couple generations, maybe the a review on the current ones?

[Wwhat Posted Dec 25th 2009 5:44PM]

This thing as seen in the video bumps into objects to detect them, now after a weekend of that your table-leggs and walls won't look so nice anymore I imagine, so I'd say the designers of this aren't the wisest of people.

Also I wonder if it can finds its recharging spot itself.

[To Hell Posted Dec 25th 2009 1:09PM]

This sucks!

[rederikus Posted Dec 25th 2009 1:38PM]

Yep, it runs XP on a 10.1" screen too.

[KirinIchiban Posted Dec 25th 2009 4:01PM]

Now they need to add the following functionality:
1. Barks at night-time intruders
2. Wireless repeater
3. Media streamer
4. Child monitor
5. Cat-chaser
6. Dog-washer
7. Upskirt cam
8. Telephone caddy and answering machine
9. Lasers.

[Wwhat Posted Dec 25th 2009 5:45PM]

Another one:
Smoke alarm with automatic flee subroutines so it saves itself.

[wwwirobotsbiz Posted Jan 4th 2010 9:07AM]

Algorithm of ECleaner looks easier than Roomba`s. ASUS is not able to go round a table legs.