Dyson & Sebo Vacuum Cleaner Repair & Advice Forums
Dyson Worldwide => Dyson in the News => Topic started by: MVacs on August 28, 2014, 11:15:19 pm
-
Do you know what the DC06 was? No, thought not.
Back in 2001, Dyson built, demonstrated and showed off a robot vacuum cleaner they called the DC06. Here is one in action.
Dyson got usurped by Roomba's iRobot. Roomba was a hard act to follow. Even we have an iRobot at home to do the hard floors downstairs. :-X
However, it has taken thirteen years (there was no Dyson DC13 - is that an omen?) and Dyson are ready to launch something new. The call it the Dyson project N223. Watch the teaser:
Does that look like a robot to you? I think so.
Dyson isn't saying exactly what “Project N223″ is just yet, but the company has been spending a lot on robotics. They made a £5 million investment into robotic vision research, which was conducted with the Imperial College London. Even prior to this investment, Dyson has been engaged in a 15 year project studying systems that allow robotic devices to see and analyse their surroundings, which has clear benefits for robot vacuum cleaners.
If you look at the interview with Max Conze, Dyson's CEO (https://manchestervacs.co.uk/DysonForum/index.php/topic,1455.0.html), the Roomba iRobot is mentioned.
While the company continues to unveil innovations to its upright and cordless vacuum products to compete with the likes of Hoover and iRobot's Roomba, it also has its eyes on one day being a player in the connected home via its investments in robotic technology. Dyson could also one day open flagship stores of its own, according to CEO Max Conze.
Clearly, we are being primed for something.
The only snippet of information to accompany the mysterious video above, reads: "Sixteen years. 200 engineers. £28 million investment. The result? Tell us what you think it is."
Dyson filed in 2012 a patent in America that was only published in 2014: Dyson's Autonomous Vacuum Cleaner Patent (http://www.google.com/patents/US20140013538).
The drawings on the patent appear to be the long-shelved DC06, but that is all that is needed to re-establish the patent.
My money is on a robotic vacuum that instead of using the 'flick up the dirt' technique as used by Roomba, will employ some suction and a cyclone of some kind. I expect a derivative of the technology used in the hand held Dysons.
Its took them a long time, so the results should be worth it we hope.
Lets wait and see what is announced....................
-
I've seen the articles on my blinkfeed all day, endgadget saying that its the first robotic machine! Keep meaning to comment about the dc06!
-
Looks like I was right.
--------------------------------------------
Dyson robot vacuum cleaner revealed in Japan
[attachimg=1]
The Dyson 360 Eye is due for release 14 years after the company first revealed plans for a robot vacuum
British engineering company Dyson has announced its first robot vacuum cleaner at an event in Tokyo.
The Dyson 360 Eye joins a crowded market - Hoover, iRobot, Samsung, Neato and Vileda are among other manufacturers to sell such products.
But the Cotswolds-based company says its machine has more powerful suction and should be better at spotting dirt thanks to a "unique" camera system.
One expert said the claims sounded "quite compelling".
Sir James Dyson has opted to offer the machine to Japan first
"Up until this point robot vacuums have been objects of geek affection.
"Certainly our experience of the competitors has been that they may do more on the robotics side of things than they do on the rather important business of cleaning your floors."
The machine is due to go on sale in Japan in the first three months of 2015, and then elsewhere later in the year.
[attachimg=2]
Dyson previously showed off another robot vacuum cleaner - the DC06 - in 2001, but cancelled the project a few years later, in part because it would have cost consumers $3,000 (£1,820) or more.
It has yet to announce the price of the new model.
App-controlled cleaner
According to Dyson, most other robot vacuums use "weak, inefficient motors" in order to conserve battery life.
By contrast, it uses the same V2 digital motor found in its other handheld vacuum cleaners, and combines it with a brush bar that covers the full width of the machine, rather than relying on side sweepers.
"We've been developing for a number of years some of the smallest and most powerful digital motors available, and getting that right has enabled us to give the machine very powerful suction, so it can have a very high performance clean," Nick Schneider, a design engineer at the company, told the BBC.
Dyson 360 Eye
Dyson claims its full-width brush bar is more efficient than side sweeping brushes found on rival models
"In addition we've developed a vision system that enables the machine to be very methodical in its clean and not miss sections of floor space."
The vacuum is fitted with a panoramic lens, which sits on top of a camera that captures 360-degree views at 30 frames a second. This is combined with data from infrared sensors to let the machine's internal computer make sense of its position and surroundings.
Another innovation is the ability to schedule a clean remotely via an Android or iOS app.
Although other robot vacuums tend to have less suction power than human-directed vacuums, they make up for this by taking several passes at each room. So, it remains to be seen if Dyson's model actually leaves owners with cleaner homes.
Mr Schneider also acknowledged that the new machine remained less powerful than his company's plug-in-and-push models, meaning it would take longer to do a big clean. But he said it might still be the preferable option for families with a house layout that suited the automated tech.
"We're a way off in terms of comparing it to our corded machines," he said.
"But the benefit that it has is that you don't have to be there to use it.
"So, perhaps even if the performance isn't quite what you'd expect from a DC41 [full-size upright vacuum], the benefit of the convenience of just being able to set it whenever, and not having to worry about it, I think, is its real appeal."
BBC Article
-
Tbh the edge cleaning looks a bit poor. I presume its just the current handheld cyclone, motor, brushroll and battery tech, with some Lego technic and a phone app underneath the shiny plastic?
-
We have a Roomba, but would prefer a Dyson.
At what cost is the question? Anybody know the Japanese price?
-
I've seen £700 mentioned, that's nearly twice what I paid for my entire car!
-
These are £900 each in Japan.
[attachimg=1]
-
Blimey, I didn't know they had floors in Japan?
Most Japanish people are rich so it won't matter for them but they won't be able to charge that price here.
-
Their made of paper aren't they? Maybe that's why the robot vac with the suction of a handheld will sell well, no more sucking up the house!
-
Is Japan a hot or cold country?
Many Asian homes have marble floors because Asian countries are hot? I think so
-
Is Japan a hot or cold country?
Many Asian homes have marble floors because Asian countries are hot? I think so
I haven't been to Japan, but in China (generally a hot place) most floors seem to be hard. I doubt its so different in Japan. As you note, in Asia generally, hard floors are the norm. That is the same for Russia too (which straddles Asia and Europe). Most of mainland Europe as well. When I go to Holland, Poland, the Baltics, France or Germany, the only carpets you see are upstairs (if any). Its the UK and the US that have the carpet fixation.
My wife for example (originally from the Euro/Asia border in central Russia) is highly suspicious of carpets in the home as germ breeding grounds. She wants surfaces that can be mopped, wiped and/or otherwise sterilised. Thus, in our house, carpet is only to be found on the stairs (and she wanted oak or glass treads there as well).
Robots are better suited to hard floors (I first saw a Roomba years ago in Holland on a hard floor). And most of the world has hard floors. Dyson likely isn't too worried about some Brits and a few Yanks crowing they are not terribly effective on their 1952 Axminster when most of Europe (many countries), Oz (big place), Asia (most people) and Russia (biggest country) have hard floors and let them run when they are at work as is the norm with Roomba users in Europe.
-
Interesting, especially with the carpets being germ breeding, bu then again you can steam clean/shampoo if desired
Our house is 3 storeys and sadly the entire ground floor is tile flooring, the whole top floor is all laminate and the middle floor is also laminate (minus the landing and two staircases) and my bedroom is the only room with an actual carpet. We have large area rugs downstairs and I hate it
My auntie has a carpeted home (except the bathroom and kitchen) and I find it more comfortable, probably due to it being a carpeted home and I can walk on the floor with no worries like at home. I would have the floor steam cleaned about twice a day in order for me to be satisfied but it's a pain, IMHO carpets all the way lol.
I just feel as though carpets get a proper clean with a beastly machine (a vacuum) and hard floors just get wiped with a mop :| Kind of stupid but that's OCD anxieties for you
-
I think carpets on stairs is a must, imagine walking down oak wooden stairs with socks on :o
-
I think carpets on stairs is a must, imagine walking down oak wooden stairs with socks on :o
In our house in Estonia we have a modern wooden open staircase. No carpets at all anywhere there. It just becomes the norm. You don't even notice.
-
Thats good if there are no problems, I dont think they are good in the UK as the staircases in an average UK home is quite narrow or 'isolated'
-
I can slip down any stair case, wooden, carpeted, concrete or metal, bare foot, socks, shoes or boots. I'm just a clumsy sod and have the scars to prove it :chuckle:
-
I can slip down any stair case, wooden, carpeted, concrete or metal, bare foot, socks, shoes or boots. I'm just a clumsy sod and have the scars to prove it :chuckle:
Haha :)) I walk drunk sometime when I'm tired, like literally lazy when I am out and about and even at home after walking upstairs, but I never fall and I very rarely get scars or cuts :| The only major one I had was like 5 years ago when I broke a glass and was picking the pieces up and cut my hand, and once I got a deep scratch in my upper arm from reaching down to pick up a book off the floor in the landing by the litl storage cupboard thing and it's go a little sharp metal thing sticking out which is now sorted, I still have the scar about 8 years later and it's 3D
-
I'm covered in scars. I have a big one on my knee where I cut my knee cap with a grinder. Also a hole in my chest where some handle bars went into my chest.
Various burns etc... Normal stuff from enjoying life I guess?
-
:o Wowzers... that sounds bad,what the hell
The baddest thing I remember happening to me was when I was reaching down to pick up something off the floor and here was a sharp thing on the wall and it ripped into my arm, now I have a massive 1 inch 3D scar :/ , I rarely get cut and don't think I have ever broken a bone.