Robot vacuum cleaners have become essential in our homes, but do you really know what they have in their stomach? We attended the presentation of Roborock’s latest developments in Beijing.
The robot vacuum market may seem monotonous to some, but it is actually constantly evolving. And it goes very quickly.
We traveled to Beijing, China, invited by Roborock, to check out the latest innovations in robot vacuum cleaners, and we were impressed by the similarities to self-driving cars. These devices share many components such as cameras, a TOF laser, proximity sensors, artificial intelligence and advanced navigation capabilities.
Roborock, one of the major players in the sector, took advantage of the launch of its new devices to celebrate its 10 years of existence and claim its position as market leader, according to a study byEuromonitor.
But what really interests us are the products themselves. Three new robot vacuum cleaners have been announced: the V20, the G20S (or S8 MaxV Ultra in France) and the P10S Pro.
Roborock’s new technologies
The V20 features a dual-vision 3D ToF Lidar system, which uses modulated light reflections to improve depth accuracy and deliver more precise ground mapping. This technology, called time of flight camera, allows you to measure a three-dimensional scene in real time. Roborock promises that this is the most advanced system currently, it took five years of development to design it.
TOF cameras illuminate the scene and measured objects with a flash of light, and calculate the time it takes for this flash to travel from the object to the camera. This flight time is directly proportional to the distance between the camera and the measured object, and is measured independently by each pixel of the camera, thus obtaining a complete 3D image of the measured object.
Unfortunately, this technology is only present on the V20 for the moment, the most high-end Roborock.
The G20S/S8 MaxV Ultra, on the other hand, is equipped with the FlexiArm Design Side Brush, a robotic arm designed to clean corners, and an additional side mop for edges.
The latter allows the robot to extend its side brush to fetch dust into the corners while adding a small rotating mop, on the same side as the side brush, to wash the floor along the walls.
The G20S/S8 MaxV Ultra also features an improved AI-based obstacle recognition system, Ractive AI 2.0, and an in-house voice assistant called Hello Rocky. There is also support for matterbut we already knew that.
A Pet mode
Among the coolest features is Pet Mode, which allows you to remotely search for and photograph pets at home with the robot vacuum. This mode, called Pet Snapshould delight pet owners.
Another change, already mentioned, the G20S or S8 Max Ultra includes the new RockDock Ultra station capable of washing the mops using water heated to 60º C and drying them with hot air at 60º C, thus avoiding the proliferation of bacteria and mold, ensuring better daily hygiene.
The G20S / S8 MaxV Ultra will go on sale in Europe in April at a price of around 1500 euros. Although it does not include the 3D ToF system, it integrates the other new features presented.
We’re also waiting for news of the P10S Pro in Europe, but it won’t be right away.