Roomba Competitor Slightly Lacking

tivojafa writes "Following hot on the heels of the Roomba vacuum cleaner, TV Products (USA) Inc have released the "RoboSweep" - "The intelligent sweeper that sweeps while you rest!". Roomba by iRobot is an engineering masterpiece with 15 sensors and 5 motors to navigate and clean the floors. It has been stripped apart and there are rumors of a replacement processor so it can be used as a general purpose robot platform. Now the RoboSweep "intelligent" sweeper has redefined intelligence (or lack of it) - the internals have got to be seen to be believed." Very funny.

Please stop building robots!

[by Anonymous Coward]

First they're cleaning carpets of dirt, next they'll be cleaning Earth of humans!

Re:Please stop building robots!

[by Anonymous Coward]

I, for one, welcome our new vacuum cleaner overlords.

High Tech Design

[DrLudicrous (607375)]

"After another minute I was so bored that I picked it up to see what it had done... the wipe was completely clean but it was starting to push dirt in front of it. The ground clearance is so low that the dirt can't go under it to reach the wipe!"

Now that's what I call quality engineering. And I love the analog 'processor'!

seems like an easy project

[onya (125844)]

One motor.
One battery tray.
One switch.
One power socket.
One LED.
A few wires.

soo... who's going to be the first to get linux running on it?

Re:seems like an easy project

[EinarH (583836)]

soo... who's going to be the first to get linux running on it?

For all that we know it could allready be running Linux.

iRobot also makes the PackBot [packbot.com], a unmanned robust robot for reconnaissance operations in urban terrain.
The robot is developed for the US Military, its DARPA founded, and it runs Linux.

More info here [packbot.com]

Through the Tactical Mobile Robotics Program (TMR), the PackBot mobile robot got a new rugged hardware housing that supported significantly more substantial electronics. In fact, the new processor and motherboard booted a Linux kernel in under 12 seconds - just turn on and go! With such substantial computing on-board, the first robot operating system AWARE(TM) was born.

Personally I find this far more interesting than this "sweeper".

Re:seems like an easy project

[Daetrin (576516)]

Wow, amazing the number of people who don't even read the post and realize that you're not talking about the Roomba.

If anyone actually manages to get Linux running on the RoboSweep, the only way they'd be able to one-up themselves is if they got it to run on a broom.

You brought it on yourself

[tangledweb (134818)]

Here is an idea for an ask slashdot thread:

"Have you ever bought anything off an infomercial and been happy with it?"

I cannot see why you would sell anything that way if it would sell in normal outlets.

As Seen On TV

[Baron_Yam (643147)]

I dunno if it's a chain or my local mall is just 'lucky', but we have a store called "As Seen On TV" full of all the crap that by all rights shouldn't sell to anyone with sufficient IQ to navigate from their couch to the mall.

Re:You brought it on yourself

[Synithium (515777)]

George Forman grill. Bought it off TV way before it was in the stores. And you know what? It still kicks ass like a prize fighter.

Thank you George!

Re:You brought it on yourself

[dnoyeb (547705)]

Just got mine about 2 weeks ago at local K-Mart. Kicks MUCH ass. Saves energy. Cooks quick. This thing has got fast food beat big time.

Re:You brought it on yourself

[kuroth (11147)]

It's not exactly a new design. Before the "cooks everything" folding grills came along, they were smaller and called "pocket sandwich grills". I have one in my basement that's at least 15 or 20 years old.

Holy crap, what happened to my youth?

*ahem* excuse me.

Anyhoo, someone in marketing finally figured out what many college students already knew: you could cook a hamburger, a steak, or even bacon in one of those little grills. Make it a little bigger, a little hotter, and come up with a better way to get the grease out (previously "pour onto your hands"), and you have a can't-miss product.

And then, you add George Foreman to the mix? Wow, I say. Wow, indeed.

Keep in mind that getting Mr. Foreman's endorsement probably wasn't all that much of a challenge. You're talking about a guy who named all 268 of his sons "George Foreman". Getting him to sign on probably didn't involve any negotiations beyond, "Its name is also George Foreman."

Re:You brought it on yourself

[GigsVT (208848)]

You're talking about a guy who named all 268 of his sons "George Foreman".

The hilarious part to this is that he has sold the use of the name [findlaw.com] "George Foreman", in perpetuity, to Salton, Inc for 110 million dollars.

Dumb boxer ain't so dumb, eh? :) I sold my Salton stock after finding that out. I don't guess his Sons will mind too much that he sold their soul, especially if the republicans get their way with the inheritance tax.

Re:You brought it on yourself

[shaitand (626655)]

Because it's hard to get into normal stores, anyone with a few bucks can get long national infomercial advertising.

Miracle Blade Knifes!

[Alystair (617164)]

We bought a bunch of these Miracle Blade 3 things... damn these suckers are sharp (and stay sharp, great for tough steak/cinderblocks), if you can help me find my left index finger that would help though. Very happy with the set, we even got a second one for free accidently.

been done...

[jayratch (568850)]

I had a toy like this when I was a kid. I think we bought it at a flea market for like $15... although it didn't pretend to clean floors, it had a much cooler action robot head that moved its arms!

When I was a kid...

[djkitsch (576853)]

About 15 years ago you could get "robots" that were EXACTLY the same as this - all they've done is stuck a few bits of Velcro on the bottom! Great injection moulded case too - very faux-sophisticated.

I think my childhood toy cost about $10...

Mirror

[jonman_d (465049)]

The site was incredibly slow with no comments, so I figured I'd mirror it for a day here [nemilar.net].

Please be nice to it :P

Re:Mirror

[RobertB-DC (622190)]

Well, if yours goes down, I just copied it to a Tripod mirror [tripod.com]. I won't take it down until who knows when... hopefully, it won't make anyone mad. Cheers!

Re:Mirror

[cethiesus (164785)]

A second [crcole.com].

Be nice as well.

Sad attempt

[rzbx (236929)]

That has to be the saddest attempt at making a competing product. It uses nothing besides some gears to move around obstacles (no circuitry), uses wipes to clean floor (which don't work well according to website author, says it barely picks up dirt and it only does on the front of wipe), moves slowly, and obviously can't clean anything besides smooth surfaces. Is there a lamest products ever list? This really deserves it.

man that thing is too funny...

[kendoka (473386)]

I wonder if the guy who designed that was a shyster or just an old-timer engineer who actually throught he could replace the ai with a differential...

excellent marketing.

[edrugtrader (442064)]

"RoboSweep uses artificial intelligence to sweep your entire floor."

yes. yes it does.

Re:excellent marketing.

[skaffen42 (579313)]

Yes. And it uses real stupidity as marketing tool. :)

I got one of these

[ocie (6659)]

I overclocked it and now it can clean my whole apartment in under 15 seconds. Of course I have to liquid cool it to keep the motors from melting.

The intelligent Robosweep?

[twoallbeefpatties (615632)]

Has anyone ever actually expected quality out of a product that has a "As Seen On TV!" sticker on it?

Re:The intelligent Robosweep?

[caferace (442)]

You obviously never purchased a Vanna White blow up doll, my friend.

Roomba -community-?

[SuperBanana (662181)]

Wait a sec...roomba "community"?

I thought the idea was to give you more free time to do fun things. It's pretty sad these people are using that time to sit around in front of the computer and participate in some...pointless...foru...

[marblehead moment]

Ahhhh nuts.

PS:Obligatory slashdotting joke! That community site clogged up faster than a roomba in the wrong part of Dustbunnyville.

We have a Roomba, and it's very dumb

[by Anonymous Coward]

The Roomba isn't very good. We have one in the Team Overbot shop, and it's cute, but not very useful. It gets trapped in chair legs, it jams badly if it encounters a cable, and it doesn't clean very well. Even as insect-level intelligence, it's disappointing. It needs at least enough smarts to get itself out of the situations it gets into. As it is, it takes more time dealing with its problems than it takes to vacuum the space with a conventional vacuum.

Re:We have a Roomba, and it's very dumb

[FeloniousPunk (591389)]

I've had my Roomba for several months now and have to completely disagree with this.
It's extremely useful, and does a fine job of cleaning the floors. It's not as strong as a big upright (which stands to reason, given that it is considerably smaller), but it makes up for the power differential with repetition. When Roomba finishes a room, it's as clean as it would be if I had done it myself. It takes longer, but of course I don't have to expend any effort, which seems a good trade off to me.
Roomba can get stuck like in a lobster trap, but a minimum of effort makes a room Roomba-friendly. Mine doesn't get stuck in the chair legs, but maybe my chairs are bigger than yours. A lot of my furniture has high enough clearance for the robot to get under to clean. Cables are a problem but this is no different from a normal vacuum cleaner.
The only major limitation I see is the battery. It holds about enough charge to do 2 small/ medium size rooms or one large room. Recharging takes about 12 hours. At first this bugged me, because I expected to vacuum the house in one go. But I ended up just shifting tactics; I do a couple of rooms in a night, then the others the next night. Turns out, the floors are a lot cleaner now doing a few Roomba jobs a week than vacuuming the whole house at a time once or twice a month.

stair test

[gradedcheese (173758)]

so I assume the robosweep, if it got to some stairs, would fall down them unlike the roomba which will stop and turn around. That would be pretty funny t watch and seeing how it's built it would probably break apart then too.

Damnation Alley Post Apocalyptic Model

[teamhasnoi (554944)]

This [robotprojects.com] will beat the FloorSweeper like a red-headed stepchild. Shizzle me Timbers!.

This product doesn't suck.

[merchant_x (165931)]

eh..eh?

Precious Roy?

[Wrexen (151642)]

Anyone else reminded of the Precious Roy sketches from "Sifl and Olly" ?

Precious Roy, Precious Roy
Making lots of suckers out of girls and boys!

Suckers!

But I wonder....

[Kickstart70 (531316)]

Are the makers of RoboCrap/Sweep going to sue under the DCMA, claiming that this dude reverse engineered the robot?

Re:But I wonder....

[Danse (1026)]

Are the makers of RoboCrap/Sweep going to sue under the DCMA, claiming that this dude reverse engineered the robot?

That would imply that there was actually some engineering involved in the creation of the RoboSweep. I think that's something they'd be hard-pressed to prove in court.

Case modding, anyone?

[ps_inkling (525251)]

With so much empty space, this device is crying out for accessories. Add a squirt bottle and aquarium pump, and it's an automatic wet floor cleaner (like the Swiffer family). Since it only works on flat surfaces, this could make it useful.

Replacing the NiCad batteries with LiIon would up the run time significantly.

Turning your kitchen floor into a maze of diverters so that it cleans the entire floor (instead of just the edges) would be a worthy weekend project.

A simple IR emitter-detector could cut power to the motor when something is in front of it.

Or, you could put an old i386 motherboard and wireless ethernet inside, and have a firewall and clean floors at the same time.

You could slam it, and have a low-rider cleaner. Wait, they already did that.

Rodney Brooks

[orkysoft (93727)]

I was at a lecture Rodney Brooks gave when he was in Amsterdam almost a year ago. He explained what kind of research he did, and how he incorporated it in his Roomba product.

Obviously, this RoboSweep thing is a complete fake. It looks like it's advertised on those stupid home shopping programmes (see the official website, the "As Seen On TV" blurb on the packaging, etc).

This leads me to reinforce my suspicion that all products promoted at home shopping programmes are fake and ineffective.

I don't doubt most Slashdotters are like-minded in this respect, but those who know people who order that crap, might want to tell them about the fake cleaning machine, and how that is probably only the tip of the iceberg (crap-berg?).

It actually reminds me of a toy car I used to play with in my youth, that had exactly such a rotating thing with small wheels on it, so the battery-powered car seemed to move in a semi-random fashion. I didn't find that very intruiging even at the age of five.

If you really want to get a cleaning robot, get a Roomba.

With a bit of luck, they'll sell just eight of those RoboSweeps -- to Dr. Zoidberg! ;-)

Re:Rodney Brooks (Tortoises)

[cheesedog (603990)]

I took Brook's "Embodied Intelligence" at MIT. Want to know the funny thing? One of his sources of inspiration were the 1950s work of Grey Walter, called "tortoises." What were tortoises? Little more than a servo hooked up to a differential which would spin and move forward in a random fashion.

But even 1950s tech was ahead of the Robosweep. It did have a single light sensor, and through some clever work by Davis, could be constructed so that when their batteries started to run low, would make their way back to a recharging hut, given that the hut had a bright light in it.

If the robosweep could accomplish as much without any central processor (lack of central processing is, after all, one of the tenets of Brooks subsumption architecture, and thus part of the design of the Roomba), I'm sure Rodney would applaud the feat.

Has anyone actually used a roomba?

[Guano_Jim (157555)]

Just curious... I'd like to hear opinions from people who aren't on Roomba's website.

Before I buy one, I want to know if it will keep up with my two-year old. I envision some kind of evolutionary arms race between my daughter and the Roomba, where the Roomba gets smarter and bigger and my daughter finds new and messier ways to screw up the living room carpet.

Eventually the Roomba will evolve into SkyNet and a former California governor will travel back in time to shoot me.

love my roomba

[cacheMan (150533)]

My Dad's sarcastic reaction was, "I can't believe we made it this far without a robot vacume cleaner". I understand where he is coming from, but I don't have a cleaning person come to my house.

My wife and I both work and my dog sheds, this leaves both very little time for the vacuming and a very large need for vacuming. We struggled with the $200 purchase for about 6 months, but have not regretted it for 1 second since laying down the money. (Check techbargains.com, you can find it for $160 delievered).

The roomba is right for us because we always found the vacume to be a chore. If you don't feel the same way, you probably don't need a roomba. As far as performance goes, every time the thing runs it fills it's little bin. The amount of dust that it picks up is remarkable. It can easily go under our bed, when was the last time you vacumed under the bed? I totally agree with one review I found that said the fact that you have to empty the little bin is (accidental?) marketing genius. Every time we use it we are encouraged to use it again, and soon!

It doesn't do stairs, doesn't handle the corners of some throw rugs well, and doesn't handle shag at all. We have to pick up the clothes/objects/garbage before using it (the horror). I really haven't found much to be upset about.

I put it in the iPod, VW Beetle, iMac, and Tivo category. It does something well, it's not perfect, but it's really cool. I didn't think I'd ever feel this way about a vacume.

Re:Has anyone actually used a roomba?

[IANAAC (692242)]

I have two cats that were initially pretty freaked out by the roomba. But that's because they couldn't really anticipate what it was doing/going to do. My regular vacuum cleaner is MUCH louder, so whenever I turned that on they'd run under the bed. The roomba is quiet enough that it gets their attention, but doesn't really scare them much (unless they lose focus on where it's going and it ends up running into one of them. I've seen a couple of spectacular flips because of this :-) Now that they're pretty much used ot it, they start by following it around, then lose interest and go about their business. Overall it's been pretty good. My place is mostly hardwood floors, with tile in the kitchen and a fairly thick rug in the living room. It has trouble with the think pile of the living room rug, but handles everything else beautifully.

Yes, but does it have FireWire?

[JohnA (131062)]

From the offical Roomba FAQ:

Can Roomba's music/ sound be changed or disabled?

Unfortunately, Roomba's music/ sound cannot be modified or disconnected.

Um... does anyone else feel a bit confused, dare I say scared, by a music-playing vacuum cleaner?

Dunno... maybe it's just me.

Re:Yes, but does it have FireWire?

[brettper (206948)]

Unfortunately, Roomba's music/ sound cannot be modified or disconnected.

Heh. I reckon a few sharp blows with a sharp implement to the speaker should take care of disconnecting the sound

lessons learnt

[holloway (46404)]

robots.txt keeps the spiders away

holy crap

[SpacePunk (17960)]

I had toy cars as a kid that did this. It'd roll untill it hit something then turn and roll again. I had no idea that I was using state of the art artificial intelligence way back then! Wow!

roomba video and pics..

[ptorrone (638660)]

well, that roombacommunity site rocks, while i do enjoy my roomba, it's now going to be made in to a robot and do something else, i'm thinking a wifi-finder, we'll see. here are some pics and vid, next time i post pics, it'll be a franken-roomba. enjoy.

pics [insomedia.com]

video [insomedia.com]

cheers,
pt

sketchy ebay listings for this crap....

[Mobster75 (234793)]

Doing a quick eBay search for "robosweep" returns a few listings saying: "ROOMBA ROBOSWEEP INTELLIGENT SWEEPER" [ebay.com]

Very very deceptive.....

And look at the crap description.... I almost fell off my chair laughing....

*Similar to Roomba but at a fraction of the price!

RoboSweep is a very affordably priced sweeper, especially compared to other robotic cleaners on the market..

RoboSweep uses built-in intellegence to stay in the room it's sweeping. Just turn it on and it sweeps! (Ya... sweeps your $40 away...)

Of course, at the end:

THIS IS NOT A ROOMBA! IT IS A ROBOSWEEP!


Just when I thought things were bad enough.... more searching finds some place [save2much.com] is selling this thing for $46!!

Caveat emptor! A fool and his money are sooooo soon parted on the Internet ;)

Re:Zero comments...

[beerman2k (521609)]

Well if you can't read the article, it basically says this robosweep thing is a piece of crap. It contains no electronics other then its motor (which apparently has barely enough power to drive the thing) and it works by mechanically shifting gears when it hits a wall so that it can turn. This in an of itself is not so terrible, but according the article the "robot" also doesn't have enough ground clearence for dirt to pass underneath so instead of actually picking up dirt it just pushes it around.

Btw, if

Don't insult can openers like that...

[i8a4re (594587)]

at least they do what they are designed to do!

Re:I'll keep my robovacuum

[MADCOWbeserk (515545)]

mine also does dishes(prewash), and disguises itself as a throw rug when not in use. Sometimes, during program misbahavior, it takes out the garbage.