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VR Canister Vacuum
The patented Vision Robotics' robotic canister vacuum cleaner is the the next, 3rd, generation cleaning concept. The two robot design enables high power cleaning. The large canister houses a full size dust bag, high power motor and a large battery pack. The small cleaning head can clean in tight spaces and is rectangular to clean corners. The use of stereo camera mapping technology enables the vacuum to clean in a thorough and intelligent pattern.
The core concept involves pre-mapping the environment before cleaning. Once the home is mapped, the robot determines the most efficient cleaning path. When the robot notices a change to the room such as moved furniture, it adapts the map and adjusts its cleaning pattern. The ultra-soft cleaning head is able to clean right up to walls and furniture, gently touching the obstacles to clean as much of the floor as possible.
Vision Robotics has a working prototype and is looking for partners to commercialize the technology. The first generation robotic canistor vacuum cleaner was corded for full power. Our sophisticated software enabled the double tethered robot to intelligently and thoruoughly clean. The latest generation prototype is built using the same core software but uses batteries for simpler and faster cleaning. While the current design has many advantages, it also still has considerable room for refinement to optimize the movements for a more pleasing experience. Please look at additional videos of the different generation robot vacuum cleaners.
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While it may seem counter intuitive, the multi-robot system significantly decreases the computational requirements for accurate navigation and localization in surface coverage applications such as vacuuming. The most computationally intensive aspect of autonomous robots occurs when the camera system is moved. Using a multi-platform system, the controller remains stationary most of the time during which it is simply tracking and controlling the functional robot. When the controller does move, it uses the functional robots as known landmarks significantly increasing localization accuracy while decreasing computation. This key innovation, the use of two or more robots, is particularly applicable for surface coverage applications such as vacuuming. Vision Robotics has even built a prototype vacuum that is powered via a power cord for maximum cleaning power. Our software manages the two robots tethered to each other and to the wall.