Robotic Vacuum Cleaner Gets an Upgrade

iRobot Corp., the company behind the Roomba, a robotic vacuum cleaner, announced their new line of Roomba vacuum cleaners. iRobot claims that the iRobot Roomba 500 series Vacuum Cleaning Robots are the smartest, most powerful and efficient vacuum cleaning robots that they have produced.

The Roomba was first released by iRobot in 2002 with several models and updates being released by the company almost yearly. iRobot stated that they have reinvented the Roomba to deliver an improved vacuum performance.

According to Associated Press, older models of the Roomba tend to get stuck on tassels and cords and users would have to manually find the device, untangle it and then restart it but the newer models has a more sophisticated programming and can untangle itself from cords or tassels.

According to iRobot, aside from the new anti-tangle technology, some of the new features of the iRobot Roomba 500 series include; a new heavy duty design, a light touch intelligent sensing system that automatically slows down the device when it detects that it is approaching a wall or obstacle, one-button activation, built-in voice tutorial, ability to clean thicker carpets, climb higher thresholds and transition more easily between floor surfaces, re-designed dustbin that can hold more debris, and new colorful faceplates for user customization. The Roomba also uses wireless technology so that the device knows when it has finished cleaning a room so that it can move on to the next.

Associated Press reports that the new Roomba vacuum cleaners are designed so that it will work for an hour a day for three to five years. Associated Press said that earlier models of the device encountered failures after only 150 hours of cleaning.

The iRobot Roomba 500 series includes the Roomba 530 and Roomba 560 models. According to iRobot's press release, the Roomba 530 has two Virtual Walls which uses infrared beams to confine the device to certain areas of the room while the Roomba 560 includes Virtual Lighthouses. Virtual Lighthouses are mini towers that emit radio frequency that guides the Roomba to clean one room thoroughly before proceeding to the next room. iRobot stated that the Roomba 560 also has a scheduling function that can program the robot to automatically clean a room up to seven days a week even when the users are away.

The iRobot Roomba 530 is priced at $299 while the iRobot Roomba 560 has a $349 tag price and is already selling at the iRobot website.

SOURCE:

iRobot, iRobot Unveils All-New Roomba Vacuum Cleaning Robots. URL: (http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=86&id=359&referrer=28)

Mark Jewell, Robotic Vacuum Gets a Redesign. Associated Press. URL: (http://www.physorg.com/news107012616.html)

Wikipedia.org, Roomba. URL: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roomba)