The Robo Maid

[Josh Hambright]

We've all seen the robots that learn your house's layout and vacuum for you automaticly, but who has seen this one
The Robo Maid

As seen on TV.

[Franchesca]

I have never seen the Robot Maid before, but now that I have ... I LIKE IT! I think that it is definetly useful and time saving!! However, most of my floors are covered in carpet and it doesn't work on that, now does it?
I'm a little apprehensive about the fact that it senses the walls because this could also mean that it will just travel around the house like crazy ... someone could trip and fall!! It also looks like its just big enough to pick up dust ... and does it clean liquids? Oh well, I wouldn't get it unless I saw it in action ... but horray for robots!!!

[Max Lobovsky]

Err, it isn't much of a robot from what it looks like. Well at least a robot that doesn't think with a computer. It just bumps into walls and that little drive ball gets redirected. I saw a roomba mimic like this that just had a drive wheel that could rotate 360deg and had a differential that switched between changing its direction and powering it forward. So it would just drive into a wall until its drivewheel turned direction enough to go a different direction. That probably wasnt understandable, but the point is, it isn't really a "thinking" robot, and is probably a ripoff. Roomba Rules!

[RogerR]

am i the only one who noticed the similarities between the robo-maid, and the "weazel ball" motorized cat toy? boy, i wish i had thought of this....

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by RogerR

am i the only one who noticed the similarities between the robo-maid, and the "weazel ball" motorized cat toy? boy, i wish i had thought of this....

that is exactly what i thought when i saw this thing a few weeks ago....i would love to take one of each apart and see the difference

[Adam Y.]

Does anyone realize that you can throw your gerbil into a plastic sphere and acheive the same results as the robot maid??

[Ashley Weed]

Have to post a SUCCESS!! story! The Roomba sweeper version is a blessing! It's hard for me to get around and do things, and I always felt bad that my apartment mates got stuck with the dirty work all the time. I'm slowly finding 'tools' to help myself pitch in through my own means. My first amazing story has to be my Robo Sweep which does ANY floor except carpet. As soon as we started moving things in, we placed one of the clothes on the bottom of Robo and let him run. He is able to do two bathrooms and the hallway on a four hour charge, recharge overnight - then do the kitchen and storage room on another four hour charge. His cloth on the bottom is similar to the swiffers which create a static charge and picks up everything from dirt, to sand, to small pebbles, to grass, to crumbs. I'm just hoping I will be lucky enough to get the Roomba carpet cleaner for Christmas!!!!

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by maxlobovsky

Well at least a robot that doesn't think with a computer.

Come now, let's not be overly critical. Technically, it does have a computer (at least a tiny one). I mean, it even has a digital clock and two buttons!

However, the movie was amazingly convicing for this sort of thing, and if I saw it in a store and not online, I might buy one (it's only $10...), just to see how it does...

[Max Lobovsky]

Yeah, at first, I wrote my post to say it had no intelligence and wasn't a robot. Then I thought for a second and realized that sure it is, it doesn't have to have any conservative computational device to make decisions. It's decision making is built into the structure of the robot itself. This is an interesting concept (reminds me of that book Wolfram published a few years ago with all the hype) The real problem is how they are deceiving it. Putting something on a TV screen automatically adds a lot more credibility than it should for most people.

[Adam Y.]

Believe it or not the concept itself is quite simple. There is a robot book out there that has plans on how to build a robo ball. Also I seriously doubt that this robot is nothing more than a motor and fancy mechanics. A cool example of BEAM robotics.

that is exactly what i thought when i saw this thing a few weeks ago....i would love to take one of each apart and see the difference

A weasel ball has a pager motor with a offset weight on it.

http://downloads.solarbotics.com/PDF/kit6.pdf

It's decision making is built into the structure of the robot itself. This is an interesting concept (reminds me of that book Wolfram published a few years ago with all the hype) The real problem is how they are deceiving it. Putting something on a TV screen automatically adds a lot more credibility than it should for most people.

In all honesty it's design does fall into a realm of robotics called BEAM robotics. It's an interesting concept that believes in minimal use of technology to acheive desired results. Some of the simplest BEAM bots are nothing more than whats in that robots.

[Ashley Weed]

Ehh, I don't know how much I would believe it. Gregory recently got me an equivalent of a Roomba - but it only does hardwood floors. I'm excited to take it with me back to my apartment, and I will try to remember to post about it if it is a success or not. I have heard the only problems with these and the roomba is if it is going from different levels, i.e. carpet to tile, and it gets hung up. But this just looks a little to 'cheap'.