Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2014/03/06/irobot_revamps_suck_and_scrub_bots/

Squidge-droids maker updates iRobot for SUCK, SCRUB action

Mad bot tech boffins enter your bedrooms

By Bob Dormon

Posted in Science, 6th March 2014 13:04 GMT

Video How do you get to sell 10 million robots? By appealing to the laziness in us...

It’s perhaps not the way iRobot would choose to describe its business model, but coming from space race roots and military manoeuvres – it originally made Darpa's squidgy squeezy soft warbot – to end up making megabucks cleaning household floors does suggest the company knows how to appeal to the consumer market.

iRobot Scooba 450 and Roomba 880

iRobot revamp: Scooba 450 (left) and Roomba 880 (right)

As always, there’s room for progress and today the company launched revamped versions of its Roomba vacuum cleaner and Scooba floor scrubbing robots.

At first glance, the Roomba 880 and Scooba 450 that iRobot CEO Colin Angle gave El Reg a sneak preview of appeared pretty much the same as previous models. However, there are significant changes in just about every respect but you’ll have to flip them over and take them apart to see where all the work has been done.

iRobot Roomba 880 AeroForce Extractors

Suck on this: iRobot Roomba 880 AeroForce Extractors

With the new Roomba 800 series, iRobot has addressed the age-old problems with using a rotating bristle brush to feed the vacuum cleaner with debris from the floor. Typically, brushes end up with hair and threads wrapped around them, which is bothersome to say the least. That aside, sucking air through a brush isn’t a very efficient use of the vacuum system either as it’s a substantial area to maintain suction over and requires a fair amount of power.

If you’re in the business of making battery robot cleaners, then power consumption is an issue. The rethink in the new Roomba is to dispense with 100 years of bristle brushing and to use a pair of rubberised rollers with a pattern of small blades or fins across each cylinder to scoop up debris.

iRobot Roomba 880 components

Roll with it: iRobot Roomba 880 components include a single larger filter in the dustbin – click for a large image

As part of the new AeroForce Performance Cleaning System, iRobot claims the design of these these rollers, called AeroForce Extractors, delivers a smaller, yet higher velocity suction area that enables the Roomba to work more quietly and more efficiently. There’s also the added bonus that hair doesn’t get trapped so easily on the AeroForce Extractors either.

'You shouldn’t have to touch it'

On this point Angle remarks, “In my view, the robot’s mission in life is to disappear, you shouldn’t see it, you shouldn’t have to touch it. It has been a bane of our existence ever since we launched. What is the point of an autonomous robot if you have go and clean it all the time? So we got rid of it – brushes are now officially obsolete from the perspective of vacuuming.”

iRobot Roomba 880 AeroForce Extractors with old Roomba bristle brush

AeroForce Extractors alongside the old-style Roomba bristle brush

If you’ve used an iRobot Scooba for any length of time, then you might have developed a love-hate relationship with it. Love the clean floor but hate having to clean the Scooba afterwards. It appears that the original Scooba was more about testing the market and this time round it has received a complete makeover, in every sense of the phrase.

As Angle declares, “The robot has been completely redesigned. There is not a piece here that was re-used from the prior robot.”

iRobot Scooba 450

iRobot Scooba 450: much easier to maintain and internally self-rinsing too – click for a larger image

It’s not just the new detachable tank for clean and waste water that’s more a Roomba dustbin style, or the channelling of the water (or iRobot enzyme enhanced cleaning fluid) within the Scooba that’s been simplified, but the approach to cleaning has changed too.

Rather than simply scrubbing away with water, the new Scooba 450 puts down water first and lets it soak in for a while before going through its cleaning and drying cycles. A welcome addition is the auto-rinse cycle that flushes the unit before powering off. All that needs cleaning now is the waste water tank. Battery problems have also been addressed: the 3000mAh 14.4V will sustain for areas of up to 300sq ft (65 sq/m) and will endure for 450-500 cycles.

iRobot Scooba 450 brushes

Bristles still have their uses when it comes to scrubbing floors

The original Scooba was a bit of a damp squib given the need for manual cleaning after use and its battery performance, but evidently iRobot has taken notice of these issues, as Angle explains.

“This going to be a major focus for the company, whereas the prior version of the Scooba we didn’t put a lot of energy against awareness of the product. We feel like we’ve got this to a point of efficacy where we want it to be a real second act next to the Roomba.”

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Available in the UK in the spring, the Scooba 450 costs £599 and the Roomba 880 £649. Whether the Scooba 450 will follow on from the Roomba’s success over the competition remains to be seen, but evidently iRobot is expecting to wipe the floor with it. ®