Around this time of year we pick through the offerings that CES had for us and we often find things of interest. This year one that slipped through the cracks were the Ecovacs robot vacuum and robot air purifier.
We have seen Ecovacs vacuums here on Ausdroid before when we favourably reviewed the Deebot Ozmo 930. This year at CES Ecovacs came with a new upgraded Deebot Ozmo 960 with AI onboard and also a new product, a mobile air purifier.
Deebot Ozmo 960 Vacuum
The Deebot Ozmo 960 is much the same as their previous top end robot vacuum. The difference is that this new model uses Ecovacs’ AIVI (Artificial Intelligence and Visual Interpretation) technology to match the vacuum’s surroundings to match foreign objects on the floor such as shoes, cables, socks etc. No more sucking up socks/cables etc.
Of course the vacuum retains it spatial recognition using various sensors and lasers to determine the layout of your house and combines this information with the AIVI to clean your house. It can still section off your house to clean certain areas of it as well.
In the past a user would have had to pick up or remove these items for the vacuum to not run into them but with the new technology the Ozmo will avoid those objects. At this stage we are not sure whether that means you will have a dusty area under the shoes forever or whether the vacuum will notice that you have removed them and go and clean that area when it is free. Makes sense to us if it did.
The AIVI can be adapted to different home environments and the Ozmo will them optimise its navigation route in its planning and cleaning resulting in a saving in time and energy.
A smart robot you would assume has digital assistant support and you would be right. With both Alexa and Google Assistant support you can tell the Ozmo to come and clean up your mess without ever leaving the couch.
Atmobot
The Atmobot is a “smart, autonomous air purifying robot” and is new to the market. It uses a Laser Distance Sensor along with ultrasonic sensors to create a map of its surroundings to not just detect obstacles in the area but also the shape and map of the room and map an efficient path around your home.
The Atmobot will automatically determine a spot in each area and will then purify the air until the air quality reaches adequate levels. It will then move to the next spot it’s identified to purify the air there — which we assume would be a different room because it is a bit hard to section off the air in parts of a room.
The Atmobot arrives with four layers of HEPA filter on both sides and three levels of fan power and works autonomously and intelligently after charging. It can also be controlled manually using the Ecovacs app.
We have had it confirmed that both the Deebot Ozmo 960 Vacuum and the Atmobot air purifier will be making it to Australia but at this stage pricing is yet to be confirmed.
AI is coming to everything else, why not robotic vacuums?
I’ve got a Roomba 980 and it’s fricken amazing. I love it. Saying “ok Google, clean the house” never gets old. But air purifiers? … I’m not at all convinced. A complete crock of shit if you ask me.
The one advantage of the air purifier is removing the dust from the air before it settles on the floor. Robot vacs are cool and all, but they can’t dust your blinds, wipe your tables, or get under low furniture. Prevention is better than cure. If we can get to the point that the dust is removed while it’s still in the air, that will be fantastic (not saying the technology is there yet, though)