In this article I would like to share with you my thoughts about which robot vacuum cleaners will be released soon and what to expect from robot vacuum cleaners in the future. Let’s talk about trends in the market of robot vacuum cleaners in the near future. Okay, here we go.
Self-Cleaning Base
The main thing I would like to talk about is the world’s first robot vacuum cleaner with a base for self-cleaning. It is already developed and was recently announced at CES 2020. However, mass production has not yet started.
The idea is that the robot vacuum cleaner can simultaneously vacuum and wash the floor. Then rinse and dry its napkins directly on the base. The base has a separate tank for clean and dirty water. So the maintenance of this vacuum cleaner robot is kept to a minimum. So it can compete with all existing cleaning robots from renowned brands.
We’re expecting this technology to be on the market soon. By the way, the self-cleaning base itself is a new goal for many famous brands.
In 2019, the company iRobot announced its two new flagship – iRobot Roomba i7+ and iRobot Roomba S9 +. The same technology was implemented by Ecovacs and Kärcher. At the end of 2015 Lenovo announced its robot vacuum cleaner for dry and wet cleaning with self-cleaning base. I am sure that in 2020 robot vacuum cleaners with self-cleaning base will be available for other famous brands, for example, Xiaomi.
Communication of robot vacuum cleaner with other devices in smart home system
The second trend of the next decade is the communication of robot vacuum cleaners among themselves and with other devices in the smart home system. This has already been mentioned by Jean Jacques Blanc, Vice President of iRobot. The idea is that robot vacuum cleaners can complement each other, exchange important information and take turns cleaning.
This idea is now implemented in the new iRobot Roomba S9 + and iRobot Braava Jet M6. In addition, at CES 2020, LG announced its cleaning robot, which can work in tandem with their flagship dry cleaning robot LG R9 Master. I am sure that in the near future other companies will pick up this idea.
Imagine how convenient it is – first the robot for dry cleaning completely cleans the room, goes back to the base, self-cleaning, and then it signals to the mopping robot cleaner, who does wet cleaning. Everyone’s participation in the cleaning process is kept to a minimum.
Flying robot vacuum cleaners
No less interesting idea is the flying robotic vacuum cleaners. This idea has been touched on many times over the last ten years. Engineers and designers demonstrated their solution. At the end of 2019, the popular video blogger Peter Sripel demonstrated his robot vacuum cleaner that can fly. However, he also failed, but nevertheless made a lot of noise on the Internet.
The idea of a flying robot vacuum cleaner is very relevant, as so far none of the robot vacuum cleaners that are now on the market, is not able to clean on the stairs independently. Also, they are not able to overcome obstacles more than two centimeters high.
The appearance of a flying robot vacuum cleaner on the market will allow to realize a fully autonomous cleaning of the house. So we hope that the leading manufacturers of robot vacuum cleaners will adopt this idea and soon will please us with a new flying robot vacuum cleaner.
In addition, in the coming years, manufacturers will devote more time to the navigation of robot vacuum cleaners. There is information that some vacuum cleaners are equipped with depth cameras to build a 3D map of the room. However, the information is still little, and it is not confirmed. So it’s too early to talk about it.
In any case, robot vacuum cleaners with LIDAR and camera are well oriented in space, so navigation – not the main task on which to work.
We are looking forward to new information and the introduction of interesting technologies in robot vacuum cleaners of 2020 and 2021.
