[chbot] Robotic Sweepers

[Hanno Sander]

Hi Helmut,
My Neato is currently vacuuming my house while I'm (somewhat productively)
working.  It's not perfect- I have to make sure the floor is free from bits
that could get tangled in the revolving brush (socks, bras) and bits that
could get lost (legos). The path from floor through the brush to the
dustbin to the motor is ~5 times shorter (20cm vs 100cm)  than a typical
upright and straight without any bends.
A year ago I attended a talk given by one of it's designers- a lot of
engineering has gone into the device.  Plenty of CFD analysis to make sure
that the vacuum picks up things as efficiently as possible.
Hanno


On Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 9:25 PM, Helmut Walle <helmut.walle at gmail.com>wrote:

> On 26/06/13 09:20, Hanno Sander wrote:
>
>> I demoed my Neato VX11 robot vacuum at a meeting several months ago.
>> The Neato uses a laser to accurately map its surroundings and then slowly
>> vacuums each area of carpet exactly once.  I (and more importantly, my
>> wife) are extremely happy with it's performance in a house with 2 kids and
>> a shedding dog.  I bought it for $240 US to integrate into my visual
>> programming language 12Blocks, now my wife won't let me touch it.
>>
>> Comparing the power requirements between two very different usages
>> doesn't tell you much.  I suggest that it takes exponentially less power to
>> vacuum at a slower speed.
>>
>> I also imagine that vacuums aren't designed to be efficient- given that
>> they're heavily marketed by how much power they use (waste).
>> When was the last time you bought a vacuum that was advertised with a
>> lower Watt rating than the competitor?
>> Hanno
>>
>>  [...]
>
> Interesting, Hanno! And good to hear the Neato works for you! Yes, there
> appear to be big differences between models / manufacturers - that was my
> reason for mentioning the Karcher Robocleaner vs. the Dirt Devil: two quite
> differently targeted (and respectively priced machines). It looks like the
> Neato is a lot more capable than the Dirt Devil, too, and again, it costs
> significantly more as well. That appears to be the one certainty here:
> there is no free lunch to be had in the domain of cleaning robots. Also
> seeing that you expect this kind of product to last for years, I dare say
> that there may just be some connection between longevity / quality and
> price. (Always keeping in mind that while rock-bottom low prices can be a
> guarantee of lack of quality in some markets, a much higher price by no
> means is a guarantee of good quality...)
>
> Regarding the vacuums' suction efficiency: I am not an expert on this in
> any way, but there probably are some conflicting requirements, e.g., if you
> want a long flexible hose connecting the machine to the cleaning head, then
> both the length and the flexibility of the hose eat up a lot of your
> suction power. As you are pointing out, what matters for the cleaning is
> the suction at the head, and this is actually specified by Nilfisk.
>
> And yes, from my experience there are some interesting non-linearities
> around vacuum cleaning. For example, the hair from these wigs sometimes got
> engaged with the carpet fibres so closely that any number of slow passes
> with the strongest vacuum cleaners would not get it out of the carpet,
> however simple brushing with a firm bristle brush would easily "comb" the
> hair out of the carpet. Sometimes it's technique, not power or duration.
> And that also is my main criticism of the Dirt Devil: it is meant to be a
> hard floor cleaner, but can it wipe the floor wet? If it can't it's never
> going to be as good as something that can, because you simply cannot brush
> and suck spilled coffee off the tiles... And then there are machines that
> can wipe the floor autonomously, possibly there even is a model made by
> Dirt Devil...
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Helmut.
>
>
> ______________________________**_________________
> Chchrobotics mailing list Chchrobotics at lists.linuxnut.**co.nz<Chchrobotics at lists.linuxnut.co.nz>
> http://lists.ourshack.com/**mailman/listinfo/chchrobotics<http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/chchrobotics>
> Mail Archives: http://lists.ourshack.com/**pipermail/chchrobotics/<http://lists.ourshack.com/pipermail/chchrobotics/>
> Web site: http://kiwibots.org
> Meetings 3rd Monday each month at Tait Radio Communications, 175 Roydvale
> Ave, 6.30pm
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line to reflect new content.
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ourshack.com/pipermail/chchrobotics/attachments/20130627/4dc14c0f/attachment.html>