An US-Taiwan venture unveiled a high-tech robot yesterday that really sucks -- literally.
The "Roomba" automatic vacuum, its makers claim, can be fired up, programmed for room size and left to clean floors of an entire room unassisted. The high-tech helper will then beep cheerfully and shut itself off.
Invented by iRobot Corp, a spin-off company from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Artificial Intelligence Lab, iRobot is owned in part by Acer Inc (
"This is the first step to bringing robotic technology into private homes and to help users save time and energy," said George Huang (
Last year, Acer invested US$4 million in iRobot and received one seat on the company's board in the deal.
According to Huang, Roomba represents an important step in the Boston-based iRobot's business plan to make robotic technology a reality today.
The Roomba, about the size of a 12-inch deep-dish pizza, maneuvers on rubber wheels and uses roller brushes to sweep up and suck in dirt and hair. It is effective on hardwood floor, carpets or tile floors, and is great at picking up pet fur, the manufacturer said.
The artificial intelligence-aided gadget can navigate obstacles and function without crashing into furniture or swallowing up small pets.
The device has been hot in the US market since the fall.
"IRobot put the Roomba on the US market Sept. 20 and five weeks later we sold more than 10,000 Roombas," Huang said.
Acer decided to introduce the time-saving device to the local market, the first overseas launch of the Roomba.
"We plan to launch the vacuum in Taiwan on Dec. 1," he said.
Acer's local software business division, Web Point Co (
"Roomba is an attractive product at an affordable price," Huang said.
Priced at NT$8,888 each, the Roomba comes with a one-year warranty.
The company has decided to bypass retailers and sell Roomba purely online as part of its strategy to cut inventory costs and increase sales margins, he added. Despite all the fancy technology, bathroom ready it is not.
"It's not waterproof," said Co Co Weng (
"Once the Roomba takes in a liquid it will malfunction," she said.
Several US reviews of the product praised the vacuum, but said the device was not without some drawbacks.
"The Roomba does a pretty good job of cleaning, but it doesn't know when a floor is truly clean," states a PC Magazine product review from September. "In other words, it doesn't do repeated passes over an area to clean up every little bit."
Time magazine introduced the gadget in its September issue, saying the cleaning machine "gets the job done."
"[But] because of its shape, it leaves a little fluff in the corners where it can't quite reach," the report said.
"And if a couch is just the wrong height, Roomba can get wedged underneath."
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