IROBOT PATENT SHOWS ‘CELESTIAL NAVIGATION SYSTEM’

iRobot has had a virtual monopoly on the consumer robot vacuum market since they introduced the Roomba in 2002. But with some new competition this year, there’s now a real perception problem when consumers compare a Roomba’s cleaning technique to that of Mint or the Neato XV-11, which are able to localize themselves, map a room, and clean in straight efficient lines. Irrespective of whether ’smart’ cleaning is more or less effective (and iRobot argues convincingly that its unstructured patterns do in fact clean better), Roomba’s pseudo-random behaviors seem less sophisticated and ‘dumber’ by comparison. The Roomba, which (I would argue) hasn’t seen a significant upgrade since the release of the third generation 5xx series in 2007, is going to need some kind of upgrade, because consumers are now expecting household robots to be smarter.

This patent application, last updated in April of this year and unearthed by Robot Stock News, seems to suggest that iRobot is at least considering adding localization to their line of cleaning robots. The patent is for a “Celestial Navigation System for an Autonomous Robot,” and works by using (and stop me if you’ve heard this one) a projector to put IR spots on your ceiling that the robot uses to figure out where it is. Yep, sounds a lot (suspiciously a lot) like NorthStar, used by Mint. And just like NorthStar, if iRobot implements this system it’s going to mean that you’d need a projector in every room you want cleaned.

The Celestial Navigation patent does talk about a bunch of potentially interesting features… For example, each room gets its own ID, so you could schedule your robot to clean specific rooms at specific times, and then monitor its progress on a remote. And there’s even the suggestion that the beacons will be powered wirelessly by the robot itself.

Also, since Roombas can sense dirt, they might be able to create a “dirt map” of your house, and then spend more time cleaning the dirtier areas. The patent says that this technology could easily be adapted for “floor waxing and polishing, floor scrubbing, ice resurfacing, unfinished floor sanding, stain/paint application, ice melting and snow removal, grass-cutting, etc” but we’ve heard that kind of thing before.

Using a localization system and cleaning in straight lines would be a notable shift in cleaning philosophy for iRobot. If you remember, iRobot has told us that on surfaces like carpet, the multiple angle approach cleans more effectively than a single pass, so I’m not sure how they’re going to justify what seems to be a very traditional straight line approach. Of course, besides the patent, there’s no actually indication that they’re going to be DOING any of this, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

[ Patent (PDF) ] VIA [ Robot Stock News ]

Thanks Thorn!