Roborock robot vacuums are up to 49 percent off as part of the Amazon spring sale. All told, dozens of items are available for a discounted price, from standard robot vacuums to manual cleaners.
The most enticing offer here is likely the company’s flagship S8+ robot vacuum, which is 30 percent off. That drops the price down to $700, a record low for the device. This is a vacuum/mop hybrid that automatically deposits debris into an affiliated dock. Roborock says the dock is large enough, at 2.5 liters, to store up to seven weeks of dirt and dust before requiring a trip to the trash can.
It’s also powerful enough to clean hardwood, tiles, carpets and even thick rugs. It boasts the same kind of light and infrared imaging technology as rival robovacs, so it’ll automatically avoid floor-based hazards. The affiliated app gives access to a 3D map of the space, allowing people to adjust cleaning routes as they see fit. We have consistently enjoyed Roborock vacuums, though have found the app to be a bit on the wonky side.
The company’s Q5 robot vacuum is also on sale for $220, which is a 49 percent price drop. This is an entry-level product that lacks many of the premium features found with the S8+, but it’s still a great choice for simple cleaning tasks. The Q5 can easily handle pet hair, dust, dirt and all manner of debris, though there’s no mop feature. The battery does last for three hours before requiring a charge, which is a decent metric. It also integrates with voice assistants.
Other deals include the Roborock Q8 Max, which features a mop but lacks a self-emptying dock, for $400, and the Dyad Pro combo wet/dry manual vacuum. This cordless vac is $460 throughout the sale period, which is a discount of 30 percent.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/get-up-to-49-percent-off-roborock-robot-vacuums-during-the-amazon-big-spring-sale-173716617.html?src=rss
Spring is the perfect time to refresh your home and swimming pool. As the days become longer and warmer, it’s time to clear away winter debris and prepare for spring’s clear waters. Cleaning your pool in the spring readies it for the upcoming swim season, guaranteeing a clean, hygienic, and enjoyable experience. Among all the available products, the Beatbot AquaSense series stands out as a remarkable robotic pool cleaner, showcasing innovative advancement beyond any other product I’ve seen. From March 20th to April 10th, you can enjoy an exceptional Spring Cleaning offer. Get $200 OFF on the AquaSense and AquaSense Pro at Beatbot’s Official Website.
If you’ve already read my review of the Beatbot AquaSense Pro, please continue reading this article for new information and comparisons with the more budget-friendly second AquaSense model. Essentially, the AquaSense series of robotic pool cleaners revolutionizes the standards of pool cleaning. Its innovative technology ensures unmatched cleanliness by combining elegance and intelligence. Both the AquaSense and AquaSense Pro models offer a perfect blend of sophistication, power, and smart technology aimed at effortlessly keeping your pool in pristine condition. This is the future of pool maintenance, accessible to you now.
Groundbreaking Cleaning Power
The Beatbot AquaSense series delivers unmatched performance through its brushless main-pump motor. This impressive engineering feat generates an astounding 5500 GPH (Gallons Per Hour) suction. The device’s cleaning performance is further amplified by 2×2 ultra-long independent roller brushes. These brushes operate in sync, increasing scrubbing power, and while turning, the two left, and two right brushes operate independently for improved control, thereby achieving greater cleaning coverage. This extends the pool cleaner’s reach and efficiency, ensuring a thorough cleaning that leaves your pool immaculate. With a powerful cleaning system and 150µm fine filtration, even the smallest particles are captured, resulting in visibly cleaner water.
Consider everything that can and can’t be seen by the naked eye, including leaves, bugs, and dirt, which may be at the bottom, floating in, or on the swimming pool. In addition, both the sides below and above the waterline are thoroughly cleaned.
The Aquasense Pro received the Yanko Design’s Editors Choice award for two remarkable features: its ability to navigate steps and clean the swimming pool’s surface. While built-in pool cleaning systems effectively remove leaves and debris, they often leave smaller particles floating on the surface. Traditionally, this has required pool owners to skim the surface with a net manually. The Aquasense Pro eliminates this task.
While the AquaSense Pro is impressive, the standard AquaSense model should not be overlooked, especially for those on a budget or who do not require the extra features of the Pro model. Despite lacking some features of the Pro version, the AquaSense robotic pool cleaner still boasts advanced capabilities that stand out in the industry. Many competitors are corded and offer less than 5000 GPH suction, and they lack intelligent features such as smart return and easy retrieval. However, the AquaSense model excels in these areas, exceeding my expectations. For these reasons, this model has also been awarded Yanko Design’s Editors Choice.
Intelligent Path Optimization
What truly distinguishes the AquaSense series is its powerful quad-core 1.8GHz processor. This processor drives the device’s intelligent features, such as the groundbreaking Intelligent Path Optimization. This feature, which possesses computing capabilities 450 times larger than similar flagship products, enables AquaSense to navigate your pool with remarkable efficiency and accuracy. During my experience with this device, I’ve seen it learn, adapt, and optimize its cleaning path for maximum coverage and efficiency.
If you opt for the AquaSense Pro, this example shows how it has learned to “climb” multiple steps, clean surfaces, and repeatedly clean walls both below and above the waterline. This task requires substantial computing power, strength, and agility to execute. Every component works in sync, from the four brushes and dual propellers to the water suction and rails. This balance of power and finesse enables the cleaner to perform tasks that competing brands in the same class cannot match. On the other hand, the AquaSense model has also inherited similar intelligent processing with 15 sensors, which includes SonicSense Ultrasonic AI Pool Mapping and Obstacle Avoidance and CleverNav Smart Navigation System, enabling it to clean the pool floor in an S-shaped pattern and the walls and waterline in an N-shaped pattern.
This intelligent navigation system includes industry-leading features such as Auto-Return and Waterline Parking. These features ensure that AquaSense smartly returns to its starting point and docks at the waterline once the cleaning cycle is complete or the battery is low. This makes it easy to retrieve without any hassle. The best part about these features is that there’s no longer a need to retrieve the pool cleaner from the bottom using a pool stick.
Unmatched User Experience
The Beatbot App improves the user experience with the AquaSense series. This app allows effortless control of the device from your smartphone. Whether you’re choosing cleaning modes or accessing cleaning records, the app makes managing your pool’s cleaning functionalities just a few taps away. Additionally, the device supports Over-The-Air (OTA) updates, continually enhancing its functionality, much like the smartphone you use daily.
I take great pleasure in monitoring the progress of the AquaSense Pro, particularly from a few days ago when I used a custom cleaning mode. The floor, wall, and surface were cleaned twice! The total run time on a single charge was 331 minutes (5.5 hours), filtering 13,728 gallons of water. The surface cleaning took the longest at 177 minutes, followed by the floor at 81 minutes and the walls at 73 minutes. As for the AquaSense model, it has a solid battery life, lasting up to 3.5 hours and taking approximately 3 hours to charge. All this information and more can be easily accessed through the app.
Spring Cleaning Special Offer
As we embrace the spirit of renewal that comes with spring, there’s no better time to enhance your pool cleaning experience with the Beatbot AquaSense Pro. From March 20th to April 10th, take advantage of an exceptional Spring Cleaning offer with $200 OFF both the AquaSense and AquaSense Pro on Beatbot’s Official Website. Remember that this isn’t just an investment in a robotic pool cleaner; it’s an investment in peace of mind, the luxury of time saved, and the assurance of having the most advanced pool cleaning technology at your service.
Earlier this year, Elon Musk announced that the first human patient had received a Neuralink brain implant as part of the company’s first clinical trial. Now, the company has shared a brief public demo of the brain-computer interface (BCI) in action.
The company briefly live streamed a demo on X with a 29-year-old man named Nolan Arbaugh, who said he was paralyzed from the neck down after a diving accident eight years ago. In the video, Arbaugh explains that after receiving the implant — he said the surgery was “super easy” — he had to learn how to differentiate “imagined movement versus attempted movement” in order to learn to control a cursor on a screen.
“A lot of what we started out with was attempting to move,” Arbaugh said. “I would attempt to move, say, my right hand left, right forward, back. And from there, I think it just became intuitive for me to start imagining the cursor moving.”
In the clip, which also features a Neuralink engineer, Arbaugh demonstrates the BCI by moving a cursor around the screen of a laptop, and pausing an on-screen music player. He said the implant has allowed him to play chess and Civilization VI. He noted that he has previously used other assistive devices like mouthsticks, but that the Neuralink implant has enabled longer gaming sessions, as well as online play. He said that he can get about eight hours of use before the implant needs to recharge (it’s not clear how charging works).
Arbaugh became the first human patient to receive the implant in January after Neuralink began recruiting patients last year. The company previously tested the BCI in animals, including chimps, and some of its animal testing practices have been the subject of federal investigations.
In the video, Arbaugh indicated his experience with the brain implant has so far been positive, despite some initial issues. “It's not perfect, I would say that we have run into some issues,” he said. “I don't want people to think that this is the end of the journey. There's a lot of work to be done, but it has already changed my life.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/heres-a-video-of-the-first-human-neuralink-patient-controlling-a-computer-with-his-thoughts-235659486.html?src=rss
Natural disasters can take a heavy toll on life and property, even when we’ve prepared for the worst. Floods, earthquakes, fires, and volcanic eruptions can send people running to evacuation centers where they may be safe but are hardly intact both in the body and especially in the mind. These refuge centers are often only able to provide the bare necessities when it comes to shelter and food, with electric power and heating sometimes taking a lower priority. That’s not even considering the psychological pain that all evacuees experience during these dark times, which often take a backseat because of the state emergency. Of course, all of these are important factors to consider, and this concept for an add but cute robot tries to address them in its own little way to provide both physical and mental comfort to people who have been displaced by these calamities.
Designers: Taejeong Kim, Yeji Jeon
To be fair, such shelters have to focus on what human needs to survive, like food, clothing, and a stable roof over their heads. Electricity often isn’t even viable during natural disasters when power lines are down, but considering how much we rely on electric appliances and devices these days, it has become almost just as critical. Depending on the location and the nature of the disaster, keeping warm is also important, especially if the person is shivering from shock.
POWER HUG is a product design concept that tries to bring some of that on a personal level, just enough power and warmth to bring a little comfort and ease the worries of the person. It is pretty much a big power bank, one with outlets for both USB cables as well as typical power adapters. It also has a built-in warmer to keep the person toasty, especially at night when temperatures tend to drop drastically.
What makes the design notable, however, isn’t just the features but also its form. POWER HUG comes as a cylindrical robot with two soft, bendable tubes that wrap around each end like a wheel. It has a screen in the middle to show the robot’s face and deliver a more humane touch to the design. Unlike what you might expect from robots, however, this one is covered with a thin cushion and soft fabric so that you can wrap yours around it in an embrace. Paired with its heating capability, it can deliver much-needed warmth, comfort, and perhaps even peace to a troubled person.
Considering its use in emergency situations, it’s almost necessary for POWER HUG to be made accessible and sustainable materials. Its batteries can be sourced from unused electric vehicle batteries, while its fabric can be made from recycled materials. It’s definitely an interesting idea, even if the production of such a device might not be practical, as it emphasizes humans’ need for more than just food and shelter to survive a disaster.
Dyson’s one of the biggest players in the cordless vacuum and air purifier space (and, more recently, hair styling as well), but it’s kept a relatively low profile in the robot vacuum market. Today, the company’s bringing its latest robot vacuum to the US and Canada. After being available in other regions, the Dyson 360 Vis Nav is now available to order in the US for a whopping $1,199 from Dyson direct and other retailers like Amazon.
While we haven’t had the chance to test the 360 Vis Nav yet, we were able to get more details from Dyson about how the new robot vacuum works. A few things stand out as departures from traditional robot vacuums, the first being the 360-degree vision system that uses a camera on the top-center of the robot to map out your home as it cleans. Home mapping isn’t new in this space, but Dyson claims that the images captured by this vision system will help the machine better understand the layout of your home, including where obstacles like furniture live, make note of corners and edges and help it recognize where it’s cleaned and where it still needs to go to finish a job. The camera is surrounded by eight LEDs that balance exposure and better help the robovac navigate in low-light situations as well.
Second, whereas most robot vacuums use small sweepers to collect dust bunnies hiding in room corners and along furniture edges, Dyson’s machine has a side-edge actuator that opens automatically when cleaning spaces like these. It then uses suction to collect debris, which Dyson claims provides an even more thorough cleanup. I’m eager to see how this works in practice because cleaning the corners of rooms is one of the hardest things for a robot vacuum to do right, even for those that have the advantage of a D-shaped design like the 360 Vis Nav.
Finally, Dyson’s robot vacuum uses a Piezo sensor similar to those found in the company’s stick vacs to detect dirt and, subsequently, help the machine do a couple of things: kick up its suction power to the max 65 air watts when necessary, and create a heatmap in the My Dyson app of the dirtiest parts of your home. This sounds like a more useful application for a piezo sensor than that of Dyson’s cordless vacuums; I found in my testing that seeing how many dirt particles you’re sucking up with a manual vacuum might be fun to watch change on a digital display as you clean, but it’s not very actionable once you’re done vacuuming. But in this application, particularly with the heatmap, that information can show you areas of your home you may want to clean more often and you can program the 360 Vis Nav to only clean those spots from within the app.
The Dyson 360 Vis Nav has a similar design to some of the higher-end robot vacuums on the market right now, with two squared-off edges that help it get into room corners more easily. Under the hood, it has a Hyperdymium motor and a removable filter, plus a triple-action brush bar that spans the entire width of the machine, something you don’t often see in competing robot vacuums. Naturally, the cleaning surfaces borrow a lot from those on the company’s stick vacs: there are carbon fiber bristles and stiff nylon bristles for deep-cleaning carpets and a “fluffy” softer nylon surface that’s better on hard floors. The whole machine is HEPA-compliant, which means air that’s been sucked up cannot escape through other parts of the machine, making it better at trapping microscopic particles like allergens and dust mites.
Dyson may have waited a bit to enter the US robot vacuum market, but it appears it wanted to find the right ways of integrating technology from its cordless vacuums into this space before doing so. On paper, that technology could set the 360 Vis Nav apart from other robot vacuums when it comes to raw suction power. When we’re able to get testing time with the device, I’ll be interested to try out its four cleaning modes (Auto, Boost, Quick and Quiet), see if the advertised 65-minute runtime (in Auto Mode) actually holds up and judge how robust and easy to use the My Dyson app is.
But what already sets the 360 Vis Nav apart from the competition is its sky-high, $1,199 price tag. That’s a price we’ve only seen on robot vacuums that come with self-emptying bases, and the 360 Vis Nav doesn’t have one of those (its dock only recharges). But this won’t be a surprise if you’re familiar with other Dyson products, which are often priced at a premium.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dyson-enters-the-us-robot-vacuum-market-with-the-360-vis-nav-153013678.html?src=rss
Dyson’s one of the biggest players in the cordless vacuum and air purifier space (and, more recently, hair styling as well), but it’s kept a relatively low profile in the robot vacuum market. Today, the company’s bringing its latest robot vacuum to the US and Canada. After being available in other regions, the Dyson 360 Vis Nav is now available to order in the US for a whopping $1,199 from Dyson direct and other retailers like Amazon.
While we haven’t had the chance to test the 360 Vis Nav yet, we were able to get more details from Dyson about how the new robot vacuum works. A few things stand out as departures from traditional robot vacuums, the first being the 360-degree vision system that uses a camera on the top-center of the robot to map out your home as it cleans. Home mapping isn’t new in this space, but Dyson claims that the images captured by this vision system will help the machine better understand the layout of your home, including where obstacles like furniture live, make note of corners and edges and help it recognize where it’s cleaned and where it still needs to go to finish a job. The camera is surrounded by eight LEDs that balance exposure and better help the robovac navigate in low-light situations as well.
Second, whereas most robot vacuums use small sweepers to collect dust bunnies hiding in room corners and along furniture edges, Dyson’s machine has a side-edge actuator that opens automatically when cleaning spaces like these. It then uses suction to collect debris, which Dyson claims provides an even more thorough cleanup. I’m eager to see how this works in practice because cleaning the corners of rooms is one of the hardest things for a robot vacuum to do right, even for those that have the advantage of a D-shaped design like the 360 Vis Nav.
Finally, Dyson’s robot vacuum uses a Piezo sensor similar to those found in the company’s stick vacs to detect dirt and, subsequently, help the machine do a couple of things: kick up its suction power to the max 65 air watts when necessary, and create a heatmap in the My Dyson app of the dirtiest parts of your home. This sounds like a more useful application for a piezo sensor than that of Dyson’s cordless vacuums; I found in my testing that seeing how many dirt particles you’re sucking up with a manual vacuum might be fun to watch change on a digital display as you clean, but it’s not very actionable once you’re done vacuuming. But in this application, particularly with the heatmap, that information can show you areas of your home you may want to clean more often and you can program the 360 Vis Nav to only clean those spots from within the app.
The Dyson 360 Vis Nav has a similar design to some of the higher-end robot vacuums on the market right now, with two squared-off edges that help it get into room corners more easily. Under the hood, it has a Hyperdymium motor and a removable filter, plus a triple-action brush bar that spans the entire width of the machine, something you don’t often see in competing robot vacuums. Naturally, the cleaning surfaces borrow a lot from those on the company’s stick vacs: there are carbon fiber bristles and stiff nylon bristles for deep-cleaning carpets and a “fluffy” softer nylon surface that’s better on hard floors. The whole machine is HEPA-compliant, which means air that’s been sucked up cannot escape through other parts of the machine, making it better at trapping microscopic particles like allergens and dust mites.
Dyson may have waited a bit to enter the US robot vacuum market, but it appears it wanted to find the right ways of integrating technology from its cordless vacuums into this space before doing so. On paper, that technology could set the 360 Vis Nav apart from other robot vacuums when it comes to raw suction power. When we’re able to get testing time with the device, I’ll be interested to try out its four cleaning modes (Auto, Boost, Quick and Quiet), see if the advertised 65-minute runtime (in Auto Mode) actually holds up and judge how robust and easy to use the My Dyson app is.
But what already sets the 360 Vis Nav apart from the competition is its sky-high, $1,199 price tag. That’s a price we’ve only seen on robot vacuums that come with self-emptying bases, and the 360 Vis Nav doesn’t have one of those (its dock only recharges). But this won’t be a surprise if you’re familiar with other Dyson products, which are often priced at a premium.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dyson-enters-the-us-robot-vacuum-market-with-the-360-vis-nav-153013678.html?src=rss
We saw quite a few robots at MWC 2024 last month, but the two brightest stars were dog-like designs that were derived from the nightmare fuel that was Boston Dynamics’ Spot. Nowadays, the term “quadruped robot” would call images of that machine or its more refined descendants, but that’s only by convention and not by definition. This DIY robot, for example, also has four legs, at least for the technical definition of what a “leg” means, except it doesn’t take inspiration from canines or other four-legged animals. Instead, it tries to disguise itself as a fruit that suddenly splits into four and starts moving almost like a crab. A real-world Transformer, but in a small and somewhat cute package.
Designer: Ryota Kobayashi
Most of us probably aren’t unfamiliar with robots in disguise, at least those fictional machines that transform from a mundane shape to something truly more robotic. Of course, those fictional robots try to mimic vehicles or even animals since those things are already mobile by nature. But a spherical fruit that only rolls when the law of inertia takes effect? Really an odd choice for a disguise.
But that’s exactly what the Sherobo quadruped robot does, looking like a very fake plastic lemon in its “inactive” state. The real inspiration isn’t actually the fruit itself but what’s done with it in Japan. A game called “Suikawari” is pretty much the Japanese form of piñata, trying to split the watermelon with a stick while blindfolded. Of course, you won’t be splitting this sphere, let alone hitting it, because it splits on its own when it stretches its legs to walk around.
Sherobo is actually made from many off-the-shelf components for the robot’s mainboard and motors. The frame, body, and legs, however, are all custom 3D printed, of course, and the designs are sadly not available publicly. What’s interesting is that each of the robot’s four legs has three degrees of freedom or 3DoF, giving it a great deal of mobility and flexibility. That said, given its design of the legs located around the body, it walks more like a crab than any other quadruped.
And, of course, it doesn’t have to be a watermelon, either, and it can be any fruit or spherical object you prefer. It’s definitely an interesting experiment on robot design and one that expands the definition of a quadruped robot. It doesn’t hurt that it is perhaps more adorable those those Spot-like dog-inspired robots, that is unless you actually have a phobia of crab-like and spider-like critters.
Designed to extend the range of delivery from specific hubs, the DJI Express can easily make short inter-city commutes to deliver cargo and supplies without needing a semi-truck or even a dedicated driver. Perfect for smaller cities located next to bigger ones, the drone takes on the role of a delivery-agent, helping easily and rapidly cover large distances to complete deliveries.
Designer: Qingsheng Meng
The DJI Express UAV concept, created by China-based Qingsheng Meng, explores a different format from the drones you’re currently used to. Unlike most quadcopter-shaped aerial devices, the Express takes on the shape of a winged eVTOL that can fly longer distances like your regular airplane. However, significantly smaller than most airplanes, the Express UAV, as its abbreviation suggests, doesn’t have any humans inside it. The unmanned aircraft is controlled entirely remotely, relying on a combination of sensors for route-mapping and obstacle avoicance, and a rather massive camera unit on the tip that allows the remote pilot to look around as they maneuver the craft.
The drone’s design can functionally be split into a few distinct groups. You’ve got yourself a winged aircraft with propellers on each side. A high-definition camera mounted on a 2-axis gimbal on the front allows the drone to ‘see’, while the body of the aircraft houses a battery module on top, and the cargo payload at the bottom. Finally, a tail with a dedicated propeller helps with steering and stability.
A close-up of the top shows you the drone’s detachable battery, which comes with an easy-to-pull-out handle for swapping battery cells during a delivery cycle. However, the drone has its own charging port too, allowing you to charge said battery packs – a feature that can be used while the drone’s grounded for a significant number of hours. In front of the battery is a flip-switch that lets you set the drone to auto or manual, hinting at fully-autonomous flying capabilities thanks to the intelligent obstacle-avoidance sensors on the top as well as the bottom of the craft.
The DJI Express UAV’s design also has a rather well-ventilated fuselage that allows wind to rapidly cool the motor and batteries during flight. Cool air passes through the UAV’s body, helping maintain optimal temperatures during flight and keeping the battery healthy over longer journeys. Given the UAV’s fan-made conceptual nature, there are really no concrete details of its size or capabilities, although DJI does have a delivery drone in its enterprise roster – the Flycart 30. That being said, the Flycart still has a quadcopter-style design that severely limits its range and ability to deliver cargo over inter-city commutes.
I miss having clean floors. I've been using a variety of Roombas over the years to help out with vacuuming, but ever since my wife and I had our second child in 2022, mopping has become an afterthought. And really, vacuuming can only clean your floor so much. I missed the shimmer of a mopped hardwood floor and the smell of Murphy Oil cleaner lingering in the air. Instead, I've been living with even more toys, crumbs and an assortment of bodily waste (which three cats contribute to) on my flooring and carpets. Don't judge me (or any parent!), I'm tired.
When Engadget's own Daniel Cooper extolled the virtues of iRobot's first combination robot vacuum and mop, I was intrigued. I'd already grown to love my Roombas, especially after they gained the ability to dump their own waste into their charging docks. But for them to mop as well? That just sounded like an impossible dream. So when iRobot announced its second combination flagship, the Roomba Combo j9+, I leapt at the chance to test it. (Sorry, Dan.)
I've tested iRobot's Braava Jet m6 mopping robot, which was announced in 2019 and was notable for being able to work alongside the Roomba s9+. But it would have cost me $499 and required clunky setup and maintenance. Plus, it was yet another device that needed to live somewhere in my home. It was ultimately easier for me to just run the Roomba and mop by hand whenever I needed to.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
The Roomba Combo j9+ (and the j7+ before it) promises a far smoother experience: It can simultaneously vacuum and mop without much additional effort on your part. All you need to do is add some water and cleaning solution to its large reservoir (stored neatly in the redesigned Clean Base) and attach a mop pad. The company developed a unique mop arm that can automatically move up and down when needed, which helps to avoid leaving your carpets wet with residue.
Maintenance is fairly simple too: Wash the mop pads after a few runs, add more water when necessary, and make sure the Roomba's bristles aren't getting tangled with hair. Once the Clean Base is full, swapping its custom waste bags takes only a few seconds.
While we liked the Roomba Combo j7+ well enough, the new model solves some of the issues we encountered. It can automatically refill its water tank from the Clean Base, whereas the j7+ required you to manually add liquid to the robot. The Combo j9+ also offers stronger vacuum suctioning, which allows it to pick up smaller debris and complete jobs with fewer cleaning passes. Its new Clean Base also looks like a piece of furniture, with a wood top that you can use like a regular table. Its door swings open from the front and offers space for additional waste bags, accessories and a large reservoir for cleaning liquid.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
iRobot claims the j9+ Clean Base allows for 30 days of hands-free mopping and 60-days of hands-free vacuuming, figures that seem exceedingly ambitious for most users. In my testing, I needed to look at the Roomba's bristles at least once a week to deal with extraneous hair and random toys. And I definitely had to change the mop pad after two or three runs — after all, there's no such thing as clean floors with a dirty mop.
Like the Roomba j7+ and s9 before it, as well as just about every Roomba ever made, you'll want to clear your floors of small debris and potential hazards before starting a run. As a Roomba user since 2005, I've grown to accept that they're not magical cleaning devices. You will need to put in a bit of work to help them run best. But the key is it's still easier than manually vacuuming and sweeping your floors and it's significantly cheaper than a cleaning service.
Thanks to iRobot’s OS 7, along with its camera and wide array of sensors, the Roomba Combo j9+ is far better at automatically mapping your home than previous models. After two runs, it tagged my kitchen, dining area and living room correctly, though I had to hop into the iRobot app to differentiate between my living room and family room. The mapping might seem unnecessary if you're using a Roomba for the first time (you can also disable it entirely), but it is the heart of the vacuum's routines. Instead of cleaning your entire home, you can program it to just clean the kitchen and dining room. If you connect your app to Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant, you can also use voice commands to direct your robot to specific locations.
After getting in hot water over its earlier plans to sell home mapping data, iRobot made an about face, gave up on that idea and started emphasizing privacy. The company says your mapping data is stored in the iRobot Cloud for processing (something you can also disable), which is a "secure" environment with "strict access controls, data encryption at rest and in transit, and periodic audits to ensure access is only given to those who require it."
In 2020, MIT Technology Review reported that development versions of the Roomba J7 captured images of a woman sitting on a toilet and a child playing on the floor, which made their way to a library used by the labeling service Scale AI. iRobot said that the people using those devices had agreed to have their data captured — they weren't regular consumers. One downside of using any cloud-connected device, especially one that aims to learn about your home, is that it'll require sharing some data. It's up to you to determine if that's a worthwhile tradeoff for more convenience.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
When it comes to cleaning, the Roomba Combo j9+ practically mesmerized me as it balanced vacuuming and mopping duties. At the start of every mopping job, the robot emerged from the Clean Base, turned around and studiously refilled its liquid tank. It's like watching R2D2 go to the bathroom in reverse. Since it was starting every job on my wood floor, the Roomba then lowered its mopping pad from its top (it has a 'lil mop hat!) and spun up its vacuum. Then, it proceeded to move forward, sucking up dirt while the scrubbing pad cleaned right behind, a virtuoso show of autonomous cleaning acrobatics.
If you don't need a full cleaning, you could also use the iRobot app to have the j9+ just vacuum or mop (useful if you've just gone to town on your floors with a manual vac). The iRobot app lets you control the number of cleaning passes per job (one, two or "room-size", which tackles large rooms once and smaller spaces two to three times), as well as the amount of water for every mopping job (eco, standard or ultra). You can also choose between low, medium and high suction options (which get progressively louder, as you'd expect).
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
The iRobot app also lets you turn the Roomba's obstacle detection on and off, though you'll likely never want to disable it. In my testing, the Roomba Combo j9+ managed to avoid shoes, toys and other objects in its path. It also quietly came to a halt whenever my kids or cats stepped in front of it. iRobot's promise to avoid pet poop (the aptly named Pet Owner Official Promise) also applies to the j9+. If the company's poop-optimized computer vision algorithms somehow miss a dog or cat mess in your home, iRobot says it will send you a new Roomba at no charge within the first year of purchase. The company will only send out one replacement, though, and the guarantee doesn't apply to non-solid waste (including diarrhea) or poop from another animal.
Before you ask, yes, I tested this. I placed a bit of cat poop in front of the j9+ and watched with worry as it approached the stinker. Thankfully, it stopped about six inches away and immediately backed off, as if it was terrified of the horrors it was about to inflict on itself. My floors were grateful, as was I.
The Roomba Combo j9+ performed admirably as a mop. It wasn't always perfect, and I could occasionally make out streaks, but it still looked a lot better than when relying on mere vacuuming. After my first cleaning session, my floors beamed in the sunlight with a glow I hadn't seen in months. And best of all, it required very little effort on my part, aside from a bit of tidying up. Even my notoriously picky mom noticed my floors sparkled more when they visited right after the Roomba worked its magic.
According to iRobot, the j9+ features twice the scrubbing performance of the j7+. While I couldn't test the difference directly, I can confirm it's a stubborn little bot when it comes to tough situations like dried litter paw prints and caked-in dirt. It managed to fully clean up those messes, but I'd be wary of letting it tackle anything worse, at least not without changing the mopping pad right afterwards. The j9+ may be able to avoid streaking poop around your house, but having your floors painted with a muddy mop can also be awful.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
A rogue j9+ could do plenty of damage around your home, since its battery life has also been improved. It typically cleared my first floor in around two hours without needing a charging break. At one point, it ran for two and a half hours without a sweat. That should make this Roomba pretty capable even if you have a large home. A full floor cleaning took between 30 minutes and an hour longer than the j7+, but that makes sense since it’s also mopping and being more diligent about vacuuming.
At $1,400, the Roomba Combo J9+ is too expensive for most people looking to buy their first robovac. Even when iRobot is running a sale (we've seen it drop the price down to $999), the Combo j9+ is pretty pricey, but that cut does make the j9+ more palatable for longtime Roomba owners who've learned how to fit the bot into their cleaning routines. iRobot isn't completely out of line with its pricing: The competing Roborock S7 Max Ultra offers similar vacuum and mopping features and typically sells for $1,299 (it's also on sale for $999 at the moment).
There's still no robot vacuum equivalent to the Jetson's Rosie the Robot, but the Roomba Combo j9+ is the closest we've got so far. iRobot has built upon its excellent robot vacuum platform to deliver something that can finally mop your floors without a sweat. And while it may seem a tad exorbitant, the cost may be worth it for parents who, like me, forgot what truly clean floors looked like.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/roomba-combo-j9-review-the-ideal-robot-vacuum-and-mop-130017400.html?src=rss
Whenever I write about robots, I cannot help but think about all the horror scenarios that I’ve seen in sci-fi movies and TV shows when they become our overlords after overthrowing abusive humans. But obviously, not all robots are scary in reality or at least we haven’t reached that point yet. There are also some cute and cuddly robots out there, both in pop culture and in real life. This new innovation from Toyota belongs to that latter category but it combines both hard and soft robotics.
Designer: Toyota
Punyo is the newest robot from Toyota but instead of looking like your typical robots that carry heavy things for us, it looks more like that adorable Baymax from Disney’s Big Hero 6. It’s even wearing a “sweater” that is actually functional as it actually enhances the robot’s capability to carry various things. Normally, robots just use their hands and their claw-like “fingers” but Punyo uses its chest, hips, arms – its entire body actually) to lift objects. This means it is able to carry heavier objects since it uses whole-body manipulation.
The arms of Punyo are made of air-filled bladders that can interact with different kinds of objects. Instead of the usual grippers we see on robots’ hands, there are high-friction latex bubbles as its “paws”. There are even internal cameras that are able to estimate the force that it needs to exert to carry whatever object it is holding. Inside the “sweater”, there are the usual robotic parts like rigid arms, a torso frame, and a waist actuator.
The name Punyo actually comes from the Japanese concept of “softness, cuteness, and resilience”. Combining the soft and hard robotics, as well as using teleoperation and artificial intelligence learning processes to train the android, gives us a holistic kind of robot that will not scare us but instead will be a helpful and friendly companion when it eventually becomes mass-produced. Hopefully, they will not be cute robot overlords.
