Weinheim. April 18, 2012. The sun is shining and the temperatures are rising. There is a lot of work to do in the home. Could the upcoming spring-cleaning be a pleasant and refreshing start to the summer? Anyone who has spent some time wiping a dusty floor between piles of books and a variety of items consigned to the trash can while the weather outside was fine will think that this is a little illusory. It's good if you have someone else to do the work for you: Cleaning Robots from vileda®. You have to sort through your books yourself - but these little assistants take care of vacuum cleaning and floor wiping. You only need to place them on the floor and they rush through the room, cleaning the floor. It is hardly surprising that cleaning robots are becoming increasingly popular. "Surveys suggest that 7.3 percent of all Germans plan to purchase a robot vacuum cleaner. That means about three million German households," explains Markus Dietz, Head of Marketing with vileda®.
Spring cleaning could hardly be easier. The Cleaning Robot hovers through the room with a satisfied humming sound. It is only a few centimeters high and about as wide as an oversized discus. It is round, red and flat, looking rather like a UFO. Powered by an electric motor, the robot whirs effortlessly under beds and cabinets. Then the first obstacle appears - a table leg. The robot speed up to the leg and touches the barrier, but there is no problem. It simply sets off in another direction. Various sensors on the front spoiler ensure that it sets a new course as soon as it meets with an obstacle.
The robot moves around toys, stops in front of pets, navigates its way around bedposts and does not fall off stairs. These are just some of the capabilities that allow the robot to travel over every square meter of a home. "The robot's home navigation function assists it to identify dirt in corners; thanks to smart navigation, it is also able to find the corners," says Dietz. And it is unperturbed by different floor coverings, being equally well-suited for hard flooring such as tiles, parquetry or laminates and for short-pile fitted carpets.
One "dust bunny" after another disappears into the red disk. Small brushes on the sides of the unit are used for cleaning corners and edges. A rotating brush under the robot sweeps up particles. At the same time, the robot operates as a vacuum cleaner. A removable dust container makes vacuum cleaner bags unnecessary. Three buttons allow the robot to be set to different running times, depending on whether it is used to clean a small (S), medium (M) or large (L) room. The battery is good for 120 minutes, allowing even large rooms to be cleaned without any recharging pauses.
It took about two years to develop the Cleaning Robot. "Our objective was to develop a product that would be convenient and easy to use as well as offering genuine added value for customers, And we certainly succeeded," says Dr. Joaquin Barrera, who was a member of the vileda® development team. Now the Cleaning Robot has been joined by a small brother, the vileda® ViROBi, which also moves through the room wiping the floor with a fixed duster.