Modern households have successfully transitioned to fully automated cleaning. This considerably reduces the time and effort spent on household chores, in addition to delivering convenience at the same time.
Today, robotic vacuums may be fully equipped with advanced vacuuming and cleaning technologies but it had not always been so. In fact, the ride has been quite a bumpy one.
The First RoboVac
Also called RoboVac, robotic vacuum cleaners possess a certain amount of autonomy to function on their own and are primarily equipped to clean. Some may also have upgraded features like UV sterilization or spinning brushes, security cameras and even intercom systems.
But the first RoboVac that was manufactured by the Swedish company Electrolux encountered problems with colliding objects. It worked fairly well until it abruptly started stopping before walls or certain furniture and leaving certain areas unclean as a result. This led to its production being discontinued.
History and Evolution of RoboVac
In 2001, Britain’s Dyson created their variant in a similar but improved fashion. But it was too pricey and never saw the face of mass production. Just like its predecessor, it too was discontinued from being produced.
Things started looking on the brighter side the next year when the American company iRobot launched their RoboVac model called Roomba. It was successfully able to change directions and detect dirty spots to clean by itself.
In addition, it was also able to sense steep drops or unevenness, which prevented it from falling down flights of stairs and breaking down. In the present day, Roomba has over 40 models across a wide range of price tags, in addition to still being a favorite with the general public since its first inception.
This led to further innovations. Neato-Robotics made a robotic vacuum that was equipped with laser vision instead of the traditional ultra-sound that was being used by RoboVacs so far. Following this, Dyson came up with camera-equipped vacuums which serve as navigation as well as a security camera.
Present Day RoboVacs
Similar to how the majority of technological devices function, RoboVacs today have both positive and negative aspects. For starters, they are compact in size and are far less noisy than manual vacuum cleaners.
They are equipped with advanced technology sensors that prevent them from colliding with objects or walls. On top of that, they are able to reach under beds, tables, cabinets and other such areas easily and on their own.
They also require much less maintenance than standard vacuum cleaners. All you need to do is place them in the room that needs to be cleaned and switched on. Some models may have to be recharged by hand after they are finished while others come with their own docking station.
But despite saving you all the hard work, they require a longer time to clean than standard vacuums. This can be a bit cumbersome for those having large houses and if they wish to clean the whole house at once.
On the other hand, they cannot clean rough edges and work on flat surfaces only. This also causes a problem with cleaning thick carpets and evidently with stairs as well.
They can be quite pricey to buy and have equally costly replacement batteries, which is probably their biggest drawback.
Final Words
It would be worth bearing in mind the time and effort-saving potential that RoboVacs come with. You can simply program your RoboVac to clean your house on a daily basis if you want and they will efficiently go about their work while you don’t have to move an inch.
As for the few shortcomings, we can say that everything is in an evolving state and these too shall be solved one day. Until then, time is money, as they say!