Robot vacuum cleaners and mops are common sights these days, but despite all the advancements they’ve made in terms of technology, their basic shape has remained unchanged since the first-ever Roomba. They’re almost all circular, though the are some that have taken on rounded square forms, a shape that was dictated by the limitations of old technologies that don’t seem to be relevant today. This standard design, however, still carries over other limitations, like squeezing into tight spaces or cleaning corners. Perhaps it’s time to rethink that old and outdated design, which is what this concept tries to do in order to cater to homes with smaller, cramped spaces and messy floors.

Designer: Subin Kim

The initial design of robot vacuums was made primarily for the robot and not the humans. The circular shape made it easier for the machine to turn and correct its direction, something that was all too common given the very basic technologies from decades past. Today, however, most robot cleaners have no problem navigating the most cluttered floors, so there’s now an opportunity to rethink that basic shape.

mini is a concept design that stretches the robot vacuum into a more rectangular form, technically more pill-shaped with its rounded sides. The idea is that this robot can better squeeze itself into narrow spaces, like those between walls and furniture, or hug edges to properly brush and vacuum areas that even the most sophisticated circular robot can’t reach. In small apartments or tiny homes, that is more often the case, so such a design is more useful than the majority of round or square robots.

The design can actually be even more efficient than standard robot vacuums because it can change its orientation depending on the area of the floor to be cleaned. In its vertical mode, it can easily clean out narrow gaps, but then it can rotate and switch to horizontal mode if there’s a wider space available for it to move. Such a feat would require AI and advanced sensors, both of which are readily available on most robot cleaners today.

mini’s design does mean it won’t be able to turn quickly, but that can be handled by better obstacle detection and smarter navigation. Although it might not work perfectly in practice, the concept does challenge the status quo and encourages a design that really puts the user at the center, rather than simply turning such robot helpers into technological showcases.

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Narwal introduced its latest robotic vacuum and mop, the Freo Z Ultra, at IFA 2024. This new device brings advanced cleaning technology to homes, offering intelligent features for thorough and efficient cleaning. It uses the TwinAI Dodge Obstacle Avoidance system, allowing it to navigate around objects precisely and recognize over 120 household items in real-time. Whether furniture, cables, or pet waste, the robot efficiently avoids obstacles while cleaning all areas.

Designer: Narwal

The design is clean and minimal, with curves that allow it to blend into various home environments. The key feature of the Freo Z Ultra is its dual RGB camera system, which captures up to 1.5 million data points per second. This wide-angle system enhances the robot’s ability to recognize objects and move through spaces without making contact. The high-definition cameras provide detailed visuals, ensuring they can adjust to different surroundings and avoid even small objects.

A significant part of the Freo Z Ultra’s functionality lies in its AI DirtSense 2.0 technology. This system automatically identifies the type of mess it encounters and adapts its cleaning method accordingly. For example, the vacuum first handles dry messes like dust or crumbs with its 12,000 Pa suction. Afterward, it switches to mopping mode to clean up liquid spills, ensuring no dirt is left behind. Separating dry and wet cleaning avoids contamination and maintains a high standard of cleanliness.

The mop system also uses AI technology to optimize its performance. The AI-Adaptive Hot Water Mop Washing system adjusts the water temperature between 113°F and 167°F (45°C and 75°C) based on the type of dirt detected. Regular dirt is cleaned with warm water, while more stubborn grime is addressed with hotter water. After each cleaning session, the system automatically washes and dries the mop, preventing bacteria growth and maintaining mop efficiency.

The Freo Z Ultra quickly maps its environment, creating a detailed 3D model in six minutes. It uses ultrasonic sensors and RGB cameras to navigate various surfaces, including corners and edges. The Smart EdgeSwing technology allows the robot to easily clean along walls and baseboards, ensuring no area is missed during the cleaning process, even in tight spaces.

The robot integrates with popular smart home systems like Alexa, Google Home, and Siri. Users can control the vacuum through voice commands or manage its settings via the Narwal app. The app allows users to customize cleaning schedules, set no-go zones, and remotely monitor the vacuum’s progress. This makes the Freo Z Ultra a versatile tool for households that value convenience and ease of use.

Privacy is another key aspect of the Freo Z Ultra. The robot operates with TÜV Rheinland Privacy Certification, ensuring that all user data remains secure. The robot’s storage and computation functions are kept offline, and any camera use requires user permission. This provides peace of mind for users concerned about data security in their homes.

Pet owners will appreciate the Freo Z Ultra’s pet-friendly features. The vacuum can detect and avoid pets as they move around the house, preventing accidental disturbances. It can also delay cleaning in areas where pets are resting, resuming once the space is free of animals. This ensures pet fur and messes are cleaned effectively without stressing pets or requiring human intervention.

The robot’s Zero Tangling Floating Brush 2.0 is designed to handle hair without tangling. This brush system sweeps 4,400 times per minute, capturing pet hair and debris without causing blockages. Additionally, the robot operates at a noise level of 71 dB, significantly reducing disturbances during its cleaning cycles. This low-noise feature makes it suitable for homes with pets or small children.

The Freo Z Ultra’s self-emptying station simplifies maintenance. The base station can hold up to 120 days’ worth of debris, reducing the need for frequent emptying. It uses hot air at 113°F to dry the collected debris, preventing bacteria buildup and maintaining a hygienic environment. The station also self-cleans and dries the mop after every use, keeping the entire system ready for the next cleaning session without user intervention.

The Freo Z Ultra adapts its cleaning approach based on the surface type. Hardwood floors use less downward pressure to avoid damage. On ceramic tiles, it increases the pressure to ensure a deep clean. The mop’s moisture level is also adjusted to suit the cleaning surface, providing optimal performance on both wood and tile. Carpets are handled with care, as the robot can automatically lift the mop when it detects carpeted areas, allowing it to vacuum the surface without interference.

The device’s powerful 12,000 Pa suction ensures that even deep-set dirt is removed from carpets and other surfaces. Users can enable Power Boost mode through the Narwal app to enhance suction when needed. This allows the Freo Z Ultra to adapt to different cleaning needs, whether tackling high-traffic areas or maintaining delicate surfaces.

Narwal’s Freo Z Ultra offers a comprehensive cleaning solution for homes of all sizes, bringing together advanced AI, privacy protections, and smart home integration. Its ability to adapt to various floor types, combined with features designed for pet owners, makes it a highly versatile tool for maintaining cleanliness with minimal effort. The robot’s low-maintenance design and intelligent cleaning systems ensure a hassle-free experience for users looking to automate their floor care routine.

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MotorSkins is revolutionizing the way we interact with technology with their cutting-edge SELK technology. This innovative system exemplifies the powerful fusion of ambient computing and programmable matter, promising to profoundly transform our relationship with both the digital and physical worlds.

Designer: Motorskins

SELK technology is the flagship innovation from MotorSkins. It integrates soft robotics, fluid logic, and software/API into a cohesive and intelligent system. This sophisticated multilayered textile structure, known as programmable matter, has the ability to sense, react, and adapt to its surroundings. This makes SELK not just a piece of technology, but a dynamic and interactive material.

In today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape, ambient computing is emerging as a visionary concept for the future. It imagines a world where technology is seamlessly integrated into our environment, working effortlessly and becoming an inherent part of our daily lives. Complementing this vision is the field of programmable matter, which involves engineering materials to dynamically change their properties, such as shape or function, in response to user input or environmental changes.

MotorSkins’ SELK technology sits at the intersection of ambient computing and programmable matter. This technology transcends traditional interfaces, offering a tactile, responsive medium that not only coexists harmoniously with its environment but actively enhances it. By incorporating SELK’s smart textile actuators into everyday products, MotorSkins showcases a forward-thinking approach to material science. These actuators transform static objects into interactive, adaptable interfaces, allowing materials to respond intuitively to user inputs and environmental changes.

The company is applying SELK technology to create dynamic orthoses in the healthcare sector. These orthoses, made from SELK’s versatile material, combine simplicity in design with enhanced functionality and performance. This wearable interface adapts to the user’s movements, providing support and flexibility where needed.

In the automotive industry, SELK technology is set to revolutionize car interiors. Imagine a car cabin that adjusts to your needs, with buttons, comfort features, and haptic feedback appearing only when required. This leads to safer and more intuitive interactions between drivers and their vehicles.

MotorSkins is also exploring how SELK can improve human-machine interfaces, creating more ergonomic workspaces and interactive, responsive environments. By merging programmable matter with the principles of ambient computing, MotorSkins is not just developing advanced tech interfaces; they are fundamentally reshaping the way we interact with technology.

These efforts predict a future where technology seamlessly integrates into our daily lives, enhancing our experiences in natural and unobtrusive ways. Motorskins’ innovative work demonstrates how design and technology can synergistically improve human life, making our interactions with the world more intuitive and connected.

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The Beatbot AquaSense Pro changes the game for robotic pool cleaners. This state-of-the-art device combines cutting-edge technology with robust engineering to deliver an unparalleled pool-cleaning experience. Here’s a detailed look at why the AquaSense Pro is the best investment for pool owners, covering its comprehensive cleaning capabilities, user-friendly features, superior performance, and competitive pricing.

Designer: Beatbot

Click Here to Buy Now: $1,759 $2,199 ($440 off) and 1-year extended warranty on top of the standard two-year warranty! Hurry, deal ends in 48-hours!

Dive into Comprehensive 5-in-1 Cleaning Magic

The AquaSense Pro offers a revolutionary cleaning system designed to handle every aspect of pool maintenance. Its 5-in-1 cleaning capability ensures that every inch of your pool is spotless.

Crystal Clear Water at Your Fingertips: The AquaSense Pro doesn’t just remove visible debris; it filters out even the tiniest particles that can cloud your pool water. This enhances the visual appeal of your pool and ensures a healthier swimming environment by removing potentially harmful contaminants. Imagine the satisfaction of jumping into your pool and seeing the bottom, crystal clear, with no murkiness in sight. That’s the AquaSense Pro’s promise of pristine water quality.

Surface Cleaning Made Effortless: The AquaSense Pro, with its AquaGlide Simulated Flight Propulsion Design System, effortlessly skims the water’s surface, sucking in floating debris through its top suction mouth. This means no more tedious manual skimming to remove leaves, bugs, and pollen. Your pool’s surface will always be clean, allowing you to enjoy a pristine swimming experience without the hassle. Think of those warm summer days when leaves constantly fall into your pool. The AquaSense Pro handles this effortlessly, keeping your pool inviting all season long.

AquaSense Pro Surface Cleaning

Say Goodbye to Waterline Grime: The AquaSense Pro’s specialized brushes scrub the waterline, removing oils, grime, and algae buildup. This means no more scrubbing the waterline yourself. This feature is especially handy if you have swimmers who leave behind oils and lotions that collect at the waterline. Imagine the relief of no longer seeing that unsightly ring around your pool and knowing it’s being taken care of automatically.

AquaSense Pro Waterline Cleaning

Immaculate Floor Cleaning: Debris that settles on the pool floor can be challenging to remove, especially if it sinks into tiny crevices and corners. The AquaSense Pro’s powerful suction and dual-roller brush system lift and capture dirt and debris, ensuring an impeccably clean pool floor. This eliminates the need for regular manual vacuuming, which can be time-consuming and physically demanding. This feature is a game-changer for those with large pools, freeing up hours of your time.

Wall Cleaning without the Hassle: Cleaning pool walls requires labor-intensive scrubbing. The AquaSense Pro climbs and cleans pool walls using strong suction and mechanical agility. Its dual-roller brushes effectively remove algae and grime, ensuring vertical surfaces are as clean as the floor and waterline. This feature helps prevent algae growth and maintains overall pool cleanliness. No more leaning over the edge with a brush in hand; the AquaSense Pro does all the hard work for you.

AquaSense Pro Wall-Cleaning

Unmatched Cleaning Performance

The AquaSense Pro’s performance truly shines. Its powerful nine-motor system and brushless main pump motor generate up to 5,500 GPH (gallons per hour) of suction, ensuring even the most stubborn debris is efficiently removed. Whether it’s leaves, bugs, dirt, or fine particles, the AquaSense Pro’s powerful suction ensures they are captured and removed, leaving your pool spotless.

AquaSense Pro: NonaDrive 9-Motor System

The dual-roller brush system includes two sets of brushes, placed at the front and back, operating with differential speeds and directions. This provides precise control and extensive coverage, lifting and capturing all types of debris, including fine particles, leaves, and bugs. The intelligent path optimization, powered by a quad-core 1.8GHz processor and SonicSense Ultrasonic AI Pool Mapping, ensures the AquaSense Pro navigates your pool efficiently. It follows an S-shaped cleaning pattern for the floor and an N-shaped pattern for the walls and waterline, maximizing cleaning efficiency and reducing cleaning time.

Battery Power That Keeps You Going

The AquaSense Pro’s high-capacity 10,400 mAh lithium-ion battery ensures extended operation times and reduced downtime. On a single charge, it provides up to 9.5 hours of continuous surface cleaning and up to 5 hours of floor cleaning. This extended runtime is crucial for ensuring that even large pools can be thoroughly cleaned without the need for frequent recharging. Efficient power management, aided by intelligent path optimization, conserves battery life by avoiding unnecessary overlap and redundant passes.

Up to 9.5 hours for surface cleaning and Up to 5 hours for floor cleaning

Recharging is quick and hassle-free. The cleaner comes with a dock charging station that simplifies the recharging process. Once the battery level drops below 15%, the cleaner smartly returns to its starting point and parks itself on the water surface near a wall. This MemoryPark feature makes retrieving the cleaner easy and prepares it for charging. It takes less than three hours to fully recharge from complete depletion, meaning you can quickly get it back in action.

The battery is designed for durability and longevity. High-quality lithium-ion technology ensures that the battery maintains its performance over many charging cycles, reducing the need for frequent replacements. Even during peak swimming season, the durable battery provides consistent performance when the pool requires more frequent cleaning.

Easy Operation and Hassle-Free Maintenance

After using the pool cleaner over the last six months, I can confidently say that Beatbot’s primary goal is to combine user-friendly operation with easy maintenance to make pool cleaning as effortless as possible. The AquaSense Pro is designed with the user in mind, with intuitive controls and straightforward maintenance features. And yes, in my opinion, that’s mission accomplished.

Powerful Dual Filtration System: The two-layer filter captures debris with particles as small as 150 micrometers (μm)

The Beatbot App offers a range of functionalities, allowing you to customize your cleaning experience, select different cleaning modes, and monitor cleaning progress in real time. This level of control ensures that you can tailor the cleaning process to suit your specific needs.

AquaSense Pro: dynamic LED display allows one-click activation and easy cleaning mode selection

The app also provides notifications and updates, keeping you informed about the cleaner’s status and any maintenance requirements. Over-the-air (OTA) software updates mean the cleaner can continuously improve and adapt to new cleaning challenges, ensuring it remains at the cutting edge of pool cleaning technology.

OTA (Over-the-Air): Experience seamless upgrades with online software updates. Keep your machine performing optimally and enjoy new features instantly.

Maintenance is straightforward and hassle-free. Features like SmartDrain’s automatic water release and easy filter access make upkeep simple. The MemoryPark feature ensures the cleaner returns to the water surface for easy retrieval, eliminating the need for manual intervention. You don’t have to dive into the pool to fetch the cleaner; it comes to you, ready to be lifted out with minimal effort.

The AquaSense Pro’s cordless design adds to its user-friendly nature. Without cords to manage, you avoid the hassle of tangled cables and potential trip hazards. Charging the cleaner is also simple, thanks to the dock charging station. Just place the cleaner on the dock, and it begins charging automatically. This ensures that the cleaner is always ready for its next cleaning session, with minimal effort on your part.

Built to Last

The AquaSense Pro is built to last. It has extensive safety certifications, including ETL, CEC, and IP68, ensuring it meets the highest safety and durability standards. The high-quality materials and robust construction ensure that the AquaSense Pro remains a reliable part of your pool maintenance routine for years. The durable design is complemented by features like SmartDrain automatic water release and MemoryPark, which make maintenance easier and enhance the cleaner’s longevity.

Jump into the Deep End with AquaSense Pro

Having used a basic pool cleaner that attaches to the pool system with a long hose swirling around, I can’t see myself ever owning a pool without the AquaSense Pro. This robotic pool cleaner transforms pool maintenance from a chore to a breeze. Ready to make pool maintenance effortless? The Beatbot AquaSense Pro is the robotic pool cleaner you’ve been waiting for. With its advanced features and reliable performance, you can spend less time cleaning and more time enjoying your pool. Don’t settle for anything less when it comes to keeping your pool in top shape. Dive into a cleaner, clearer pool experience with the AquaSense Pro. Visit the Beatbot website and take advantage of special offers today. Your pool deserves the best, and so do you.

Click Here to Buy Now: $1,759 $2,199 ($440 off) and 1-year extended warranty on top of the standard two-year warranty! Hurry, deal ends in 48-hours!

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When I first encountered a self-checkout system in IKEA a few years ago, I sort of panicked because I didn’t know what to do. But after experiencing it and eventually figuring things out, I thought this was such a convenient way to do your shopping, especially if you want to keep social interactions at a minimum. Now if only there was a also a self-packing system since the packing up groceries stuff is the most difficult.

Designer: MIT CSAIL

Eventually, this can of course come true and one step towards a system like this is the RoboGrocery. This was developed by MIT’s CSAIL department and uses a soft robotic gripper together with computer vision to help you bag groceries and other small items. It’s still in its early stages of course but seeing how it’s working at this time seems pretty promising.

They tested it out by placing 10 objects on a grocery conveyer belt, ranging from soft items like grapes, crackers, muffins, bread to the more solid ones like cans, meal boxes, and ice cream containers. The vision detects the size of the item to determine the order of placing it in a box. The grasper, with the pressure sensors in its fingers, then determines whether the item is delicate and should not be placed at the bottom of the bag.

While we’re still a few steps away from actually having a robot to bag your groceries, it’s an interesting first step towards that. Eventually, after it becomes available for commercial use, they might also be able to develop this for industrial spaces like recycling plants and factories.

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