Toshiba Smarbo Ready to Take on the Roomba
August 25th, 2011
The robot vacuum wars are now heating up, thanks to humans being too lazy to clean their own floors. And so Toshiba has announced the Smarbo robot vacuum. I hope it is better than it’s name.
This little cleaning bot has two CPUs, though we don’t know what kind, a camera, and 38 sensors that cover things like gyro, acceleration, range detection and more. According to Toshiba, the Smarbo will clean an area of 100sqm in about 90 minutes. If you are worried about electrical usage you’ll be happy to know that it costs about $0.03 (USD) for a room of that size. That’s dirt cheap for a maid!
Of course it will move around objects just like the Roomba and it can be programmed to do things like concentrate on small areas. So when can we expect this Roomba-killer to hit the market? It should hit Japan on October 1 for a whopping $1,175 (USD), and for that price you also get a remote and the charging station.
The robot war for your floor begins on Oct. 1st.
[via Techcrunch]
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Categories: Gadgets Robots Technology
Wow, with a Roomba going for about $300 bucks or less, this thing better pick up much more than the tiny amounts of dirt iRobot’s vacuums pick up.
They know that price will have to come down quickly in order to compete. They are just trying to vacuum up some high priced sales first. Then the Roomba and this one will fight. Here are some tag-lines.
The thrilla on the floor of your villa!
Lots of hurt, but no dirt!
Rumble in the dust-bunny jungle!
Samsung NaviBot SR8855?
http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/home-appliances/vacuum-cleaner/robot/VCR8855L4B/XEU/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail
It’s exactly the same design.