Confining Dyson to vacuum cleaners would be very simplistic. The Briton has also tried his hand at hair dryers, stylers, lighting, automobiles… And he intends to add a new rope, robotic this time, to his industrial arc.
When we talk about Dyson, we necessarily think of its colorful and quite expensive vacuum cleaners (often brooms). However, the British company founded in 1983 by Sir James Dyson has many areas of expertise. We remember, for example, fans and Supersonic hair dryers without visible blades, or Pure air purifiers. Other products unrelated to air have also come out of the R&D offices in Malmesbury or Singapore, such as the Lightcycle desk lamp or the Airwrap hair straightener. And what about the Zone air purifying headphones?
But we have to believe that this is not enough for the English industry giant which has just unveiled a colossal plan of 2.75 billion pounds sterling (3.21 billion euros) to develop and accelerate the growth of its branch. robotics. As always, ambition is on as Dyson plans nothing less than to create the largest and most advanced robotics research center in the UK, as the company announced during the Conference conference on robotics and automation, currently taking place in Philadelphia.
A first envelope of 700 million euros
And since we have to start somewhere, 600 million pounds sterling (just over 700 million euros) will be spent this year. This money will first be used to adapt the facilities based at Hullavington Airfield which, originally, were devoted to the development of the Dyson electric car which ultimately never saw the light of day. A first wave of 250 engineers specializing in robotics (but also in artificial intelligence, digital vision, etc.) will be recruited to take possession of the premises before 700 others join them in the next five years. Note that it is not Sir James Dyson who will be at the head of this new entity, but his son Jake.
This is not the first time that Dyson has tried robotics since several robot vacuum cleaners already exist in its catalog: the 360 Eye and the 360 Heurist. Nevertheless, the orientation taken by Dyson is revealed via a few rare shots (and a video) which show machines with imposing arms not unlike what can be found on automobile assembly lines, for example. But make no mistake about it, the future Dyson robots are well intended for domestic use, because we can quite clearly distinguish delicate tweezers, but also suction tips on some of them. The idea is to free everyone from the tedious chores of cleaning, laundry and no doubt many other daunting tasks (dishes, ironing, etc.).
Yes, there is a Dyson electric minibrush at the end of this arm, and a suction nozzle. © Dyson
For the moment, we do not know much more about the new ambitions of Dyson, and it would therefore be very presumptuous to bet on the release date (and the price) of a possible android armed with a V15 Detect Absolute . But it’s a safe bet that, until the revelation of a first concept, or even the visual of a usable device, speculation will be going well.