3 Key Robot Vacuum Innovations That Changed How We Clean

These do-it-all wonders handle the dirty work for you.

Much like the clunky personal computers of the ‘80s, the earliest iterations of robot vacuums were heralded as the future, yet they were very much a work in progress. How did we get from those kind of clumsy early versions that often got stuck to the current crop of smart machines that do everything from mop the floors to empty their own dust bins?

Well, in the case of industry leader Roborock, it began with their founder, CEO and a tech world veteran Richard Chang, putting himself in the consumer's shoes. "As a product manager, you try to visualize and get a feel for those customers’ needs and wants," he explained, "instead of simply building a product for the sake of building it."

And for Roboock the exercise wasn't a stretch—he was inspired to enter the robot vacuum space when he found himself less-than-impressed by the version he purchased in 2014. The lack of intuitive features and high degree of required supervision left him thinking the companies had prioritized the wants of clients differently from their needs. "That is not what consumers expect from an automated cleaner, since the whole point of having one is so that you don't need to retrieve it from under furniture or have to clean up after it."

When he began to develop his line of home cleaning tech, he kept one goal in mind: Making the process more convenient for customers "so that they can spend more time doing the things they actually enjoy on a daily basis."

"Particularly in the tech space, it is easy to get caught up in a game of specs, to build not what works better or solves problems better, but what looks better on paper," Chang explained of his mission to solve actual dilemmas. "keep your customers’ problems front and center," he shared. "Only in this way will you make products that your customers will appreciate."

Here's three ways he did just that to improve the product that literally handles your dirty work.

LiDAR technology—it's not just for drones and driverless vehicles anymore. An acronym that stands for light detection and ranging, LiDAR uses laser beams to help machines "see" the world around them.

So how does it work? First, a sensor emits pulsed light waves that bounce off surrounding objects. The sensor then uses the time it took for the wave to return and calculates a distance. Repeating the process millions of times per second, the machine is able to create an accurate, real-time map of an environment.

In Roborock's vacuums that sophisticated technology translates to your self-cleaner knowing precisely how far it is to your couch (LiDAR) and where you left your shoes (more on that below) the night before so that it's able to deftly maneuver around your clutter.

Always improving on their technology, last year the company introduced even more intuitive navigational capabilities with ReactiveAI 2.0 Obstacle Avoidance technology. Standard with S7 MaxV Series, the feature allows the vacuum to identify obstacles (like shoes, power strips) and maneuver around them. This means it's less likely to knock things over, and less likely to drag small items around the room.

Having such an "efficient navigator," said Chang, "reduces the likelihood of misses, repetition or even getting stuck, while at the same time cleaning effectively."

Generally speaking, two is better than one. And that's certainly the case when it comes to Roborock's ability to vacuum and wet-mop your floors simultaneously.

While that function was introduced with the brand's first model in 2017, it's been fine tuned over the years "We have looked at ways to improve, as some people have noted the limitations of the mopping feature whereby you have a wet cloth dragged across your floors," noted Roborock's Head of Product Ruimin Zhang. Another issue: "While it worked to provide a good wet wipe to follow up the vacuuming, it could not disintegrate the tougher stains or dirt. We needed a solution."

They dreamt up two: Using an electric toothbrush as inspiration, the company created a scrubber that cleans thousands of times each minute. And to wash away any worry of wet rugs, they developed their VibraRise technology; it scrubs and can lift up to 5 millimeters when it detects carpeting. The patented approach is dual-pronged—both scrubbing and mopping.

Roborock's product engineers have done their best to outsource as much of the necessary human intervention as possible to their next gen devices. In practice, that means docks, which at their simplest are charging stations, have transformed to self-cleaning receptacles. The result means you only have to clean out a central repository every few months, as opposed to every time you use the device. An added benefit is that the self-cleaning features also translates to less time spent keeping brushes in good working order.

The do-it-all ultra-dock (available on the S7 Max V series) fills the mop's water tank, empties the vacuum's dust bin and scrubs clean both the mop and the dock itself to ensure everything is ready to go for the next run.Roborock puts the consumer at the center of its offerings, its technology, and its product developments. Innovations are responses to challenges. And results are the next generation of tech solutions with the user at the forefront. Go to us.roborock.com for more information.

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