Roborock: behind the scenes of the success of the number 1 robot vacuum cleaner

Roborock is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and the suction specialist from China has certainly come a long way. Today it boasts some 15 million users across no less than 170 countries. Above all, the Euromonitor research institute recently crowned it number 1 in the robot vacuum cleaner market, in value. A success of which we were able to discover some of the behind the scenes and the actors since, to celebrate it with dignity, Roborock had invited the international press to its premises in Beijing, in particular to open the doors of its research & development center to us.

Less than a year of development per robot

If, unsurprisingly, we were not able to see anything of the company’s future products, this visit notably allowed us to learn more about how its robot vacuum cleaners are designed. First surprise: the design would only take 6 months of work for certain models, excluding the definition of the specifications; a step not to be neglected, however.

The specifications are established by the product planner, which identifies needs based mainly on surveys and user feedback sent to the application and online stores. Roborock also places great emphasis on this approach, which it describes as “consumer centric” or centered on the user, and refuses to give in simple technological demonstration; Each improvement or new feature must respond to a problem raised by users. We even learn that the Q Revo rotating mops are mainly there to please users who ask for them, Roborock remaining convinced of the superiority of its VibraRise technology for washing.

Depending on the new features and improvements desired, the design phase of a robot can however extend up to approximately 12 months. This was for example the case for the S8 MaxV Ultra, which should soon arrive on the market and which, according to R&D expert Jenny Wang, required a wealth of ingenuity.

The FlexiArm, a very sophisticated little arm

It’s easy to imagine the brief, at least in part, sent to the engineers for this model: we need to improve cleaning along walls and in corners. And the famous FlexiArm was, this little motorized arm that the latest S8 can deploy to send its side brush sweeping right into the corners. But beneath its apparent simplicity, this little arm contains its own motor and no less than 13 gears with carefully designed dimensions to turn the brush at the desired speed. Roborock also tested numerous materials, and provided a shock absorber system for possible collisions. And that’s just one of the new features of the S8 MaxV Ultra.

Its washing system has also been improved, as has its obstacle detection system and its station, and it also relies on a brand new processor. Hence, ultimately, a relatively long development time for Roborock, despite the apparent similarity of the S8 MaxV Ultra with previous models.

3 or 4 prototypes, and lots of tests

To ensure the robots are functioning properly and identify areas for improvement, Roborock manufactures several prototypes, which it improves each time. A total of three or four would be made before arriving at the final version, which may not seem like much, but each one would be analyzed for about a month. The manufacturer explains in particular that it sampled around fifty wall coverings and around 200 different carpets to test the navigation of its robots. The same attention is paid to ease of maintenance, cleaning efficiency and intelligence (obstacle recognition, voice commands, connectivity, etc.), Roborock not being satisfied with these laboratory tests.

When development is sufficiently advanced, prototypes are sent to employees to confront them with situations that may not have been considered in the laboratory, then to users. Precise and regular feedback is obviously requested from them so that any problems encountered can be clearly identified and, above all, resolved.

Once development is completed, the robots can enter quality testing, still at the R&D center. They are then subjected to a whole battery of tests – around 120 – aimed at verifying the longevity of the different elements that make them up. Roborock, for example, tests the resistance of the bodywork to scratches or UV rays. Since robots are shipped to all corners of the world, they also face extreme humidity and temperatures. Of course, the wear of mechanical elements, such as the mop elevation system or the famous FlexiArm of the S8 MaxV Ultra, is also monitored.

Only then can mass production be launched, in a 5,000 m² factory that Roborock had built in Huizhou, not far from Shenzhen, and from which up to 300,000 robots can be produced per month thanks to 18 printed circuit production lines and 24 assembly lines, mostly automated. Before leaving the factory, each unit undergoes a quality control including around fifty tests.