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New Electrolux Trilobite 2.0 Vacuum Robot

Posted by timothy on Sat May 29, 2004 02:58 PM
from the putting-roomba-on-notice dept.
Robotics Toys Hardware
i4u writes "The first version of the Electrolux expensive vacuum robot was launched last May. Electrolux announced the new metallic green Trilobite 2.0 on their Swedish site. The Electrolux Trilobite 2.0 is programmable like a VCR, it also recognises stairs and offers smarter cleaning. Electrolux has carried out 200 improvements. Photos on I4U." And at this rate, perhaps MkIII will be out next spring.
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  • Wanna play Trilobite yourself?
    This was my first (and last) Java Applet. JRE 1.4.1 required: Have fun :) [alphard.ethz.ch]
    Well, I didn't elaborate the applet as far as I wanted, but it was fun learning Java/GUI programming and fundamentals of path finding (A*) at the same time.

  • Typo in headline (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mmm_pickles (624458) <john@nho j . com> on Saturday May 29 2004, @03:07PM (#9286220) Homepage Journal
    It's, "Electrolux," not "Elextrolux."

  • if only it could learn how to avoid me stumbling on it every other day

  • Programmable like a VCR (Score:5, Funny)

    by Timesprout (579035) on Saturday May 29 2004, @03:09PM (#9286228)
    They wasted their time then. There are only 6 people in the world capable of programming it to do what they want.

  • Programmable like a VCR (Score:5, Funny)

    by Roland Piquepaille (780675) on Saturday May 29 2004, @03:09PM (#9286230)
    the Electrolux Trilobite 2.0 is programmable like a VCR

    Does it mean I'll have to fiddle with a 8 x 7-segment green display, a bunch of buttons and knobs, and a manual written in engrish?

  • Roomba Army (Score:5, Funny)

    by challahc (745267) on Saturday May 29 2004, @03:12PM (#9286243)
    Unless Amazon's Trilobite Price-tag of $1,799.99 is a typo (which it is not), why is this robot 10 times more expensive than the Roomba ($159.99) ?

    I think I would just buy 10 Roombas. Then I would have the added benefit of racing/fighting them.

    • For that price it better suck something other than carpet.

    • Re:Roomba Army (Score:4, Informative)

      by lakeland (218447) <lakeland@acm.org> on Saturday May 29 2004, @06:34PM (#9287117) Homepage
      Er, because robot is useful and the roomba sucks. And I don't mean that in a good way ;-)

      The Roomba just goes around in increasing circles and copes really badly with anything like furniture. (Excercise: See if you can work out its algorithm; hint: It doesn't need any internal state ala Brooks). Unless your room is approximately square or circular with gaps around the furniture, you can forget about it. Roomba needs far too much supervision, you (almost) may as well do the job yourself.

      More useful are robots which can be programmed with a map. These can cope with pretty much any room, but you better not move your desk without telling them or the poor robot will get confused and go sulk in a corner.

      Far more useful are the robots which build a map of their environment as they go because they can be turned on and left. I believe this robot fits into that category (though it isn't the first).

      Forget for a moment you doing the vacuuming at home (or your mum doing it ;-) and instead consider a large office which currently employs cleaners to come in and clean/vacuum every day. How much do you think this costs? Say they spend one hour vacuuming per floor, at perhaps $10/hr, a five floor office costs $50/day. And note that while they may be paid only $10 or less per hour, the cleaning company almost certainly charges them out at more (profit + wear and tear on machinery + uniform + admin). The robot at $1800 will take about a month to pay for itself -- suddenly the price sounds reasonable, no? Of course, the building still needs cleaners for other tasks, but if just the vacuuming was taking an hour... Certain local politicians forgot that here with 'self cleaning' toilets, but I digress...

      As to your idea of fighting roombas. Remember that algorithm I got you to work out at the start? It ain't going to make very good fights, is it?

  • What's so good about it? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by PhrostyMcByte (589271) <phrosty@gmail.com> on Saturday May 29 2004, @03:12PM (#9286245) Homepage
    After looking it seems the only differences from the Roomba is ultrasonic sight instead of bumpers, and a price tag an order of magnitude higher (Roomba == $160, Trilobite 2.0 == $1800).

    I guess the sonic thing is a more geekish way to go about things, but is it really more effective than bumpers? Is it worth the massive price tag?
    • The I4U article points out another difference. "The Trilobite can recharge itself. The robot finds its way back to the charging station and automatically docks-on." That takes care of something that always bothered me about the Roomba but it's not $1640 worth of cool...
      • The roomba is also made as cheaply as possible (out of complete crap) and is highly likely to fail. Also, IIRC the roomba doesn't learn, it's about as sophisticated as one of those cars that has bumpers on the front and back and reverses when it hits something. I thought this thing was supposed to be smart enough to build a map of the room and figure out about where it is. Ah yes, I am quite right, from the swedish site (but the english page):

        The machine cleans first along the walls and then all open area

      • Its far more than that -- as I've learned, the Roomba is not a replacement to a good weekly hand cleaning.

        The Roomba is a GREAT device, but its not a vacuum cleaner like most of use are use to...or maybe we are -- this is slashdot :-) Its intended for light cleaning and otherwise -- I generally have to change the dust collector at least 2 or 3 times a cleaning (and probably more if I was actually paying attention) because it gets clogged with cat fur pretty readily (as well as pizza and other geek goodies
        • (I believe the roomba doesn't actually suction anything -- it just pulls the stuff in from its brushes -- I could be wrong as I've never stuck my face up to it)

          The Roomba does vacuum, albeit not as well as a REAL vacuum cleaner. It's about the equivalent of a DustBuster.

    • You're also paying for the Electrolux name with the Trilobite - they make some high-end vaccums, you know...

      • yea but it aint no Kerby (Score:4, Informative)

        by Brigadier (12956) on Saturday May 29 2004, @03:51PM (#9286427)

        I bought an electrolux perhaps 6 years ago, it still works liek brand new today. My aunt however has bought about 5 vacumes varying from hoover, to the wind tunnel thing paying an average of $200 a pop. I'm not saying this is the reason it costs so much but those things are built like world war two battle ships.
    • I imagine they're trying to recoup research costs. As pointed out, it can find its charger station on its own. This requires the ability to map and localize within that map.

      Doing that has been the focus (and still is!) of robotics research for almost 20 years now. Sonars are tricky to do it (I'd prefer a laser, but a decent laser scanner costs much more than the trilobyte..), but you can with a bit of computation. The hardware requirements for that probably drive up the cost too, as roomba has very lit
    • It's a different market. How much does it cost to employ cleaners to vacuum the floors of an office?

      Though for 1000 I'd want wireless with it reporting it's progress and building a map of the areas it's vacuumed back to a server as well.

  • Robots are cool and all but (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Timesprout (579035) on Saturday May 29 2004, @03:13PM (#9286248)
    1800 US is a big whack of change to pay for a vacuum cleaner. I dont mind vacuuming and it only takes 10 mins to do the house so I think I will stick with the manual version for the time being.
    • For 1800 bucks you could pay someone to do alot of cleaning for you!

      James
      • For 1800 bucks you could pay someone to do alot of cleaning for you!

        Dang straight! I pay someone to clean my house once a month for $50 each time. I'd need to have a Triolobite for three years (plus find someone to clean my bathrooms and kitchen for free) just to break even. Nice toy, but I'm sticking with my Roomba.

    • 1800 US is a big whack of change to pay for a vacuum cleaner.

      Actually it's not for a high-end vacuum cleaner that will really do the job and will last for more than a couple of years. That's about the ballpark for something like a FilterQueen, for example. (Whether that's worth it is another question, of course.)

      On the other hand, given likely advances in cybernetics, you may not care if the thing lasts long enough to bequeath to your grandkids.

  • First self-propelled vacuum? (Score:4, Informative)

    by thparker (717240) on Saturday May 29 2004, @03:14PM (#9286249) Homepage
    The headline on the site reads "First self-propelled vacuum now in stores." I've had my Roomba for about a year, and it had already been around for awhile.

    I'm always put off by products where the first promo description I read is totally untrue.
    • I think the meant the part where the trilobite can be programmed to work in specific hours and find it's way back to the charger, so you don't have to program it every time.
      • I think they meant the part where the trilobite can be programmed to work in specific hours and find it's way back to the charger, so you don't have to program it every time.

        If that's the case, then they're illiterate. "Self-propelled" means something else entirely.

  • a problem (Score:5, Funny)

    by mrsev (664367) <mrsev&spymac,com> on Saturday May 29 2004, @03:17PM (#9286260)
    How the hell does it know what to hoover up and what not to?
    I mean I a messy person and a bit lazy so this would be ideal for me. BUT if it is going to suck up all my money and keys and socks (that I store on the floor) then that would "suck"!

  • How the hell are these vacuumbots actually robots? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by JessLeah (625838) * on Saturday May 29 2004, @03:17PM (#9286261)
    OK. So they move independently. Is that all that's necessary for a "robot"? So, like, if I rigged up a remote control car to drive mindlessly back and forth, back and forth all day, is it now a "robot"?

    Where is the dividing line between "automatic mechanized device" and "robot"?
    • Well, this is in the dictionary:

      robot, n: a mechanism that can move automatically.

      So I guess there is no line ;)
    • btw, im a researcher in an intelligent robotics lab...

      The trilobyte is probably the closest thing to the autonomous research robots I work with, thats really aimed at the consumer (albeit, the wealthy consumer...). From my understanding, trilobyte uses sonars for navigation and has internal mapping and localization. Those are necessary for it to find its charger base automatically, but it also can make cleaning faster and more efficient than say, roomba's spiralling and wall following algorithms.

      Its kin

  • From the Nova School of Car Naming (Score:4, Funny)

    by Tablizer (95088) on Saturday May 29 2004, @03:22PM (#9286285) Homepage Journal
    I don't think it is wise to name a product after an extinct critter. Would you buy a PC called the "Dinosaur 99"?

  • It would be brilliant (Score:5, Funny)

    by slyxter (609602) on Saturday May 29 2004, @03:22PM (#9286286) Homepage
    I would love to see one of these crossed with one of those lawnmower robots. It could vaccum your house, then go outside to mow the lawn. Maybe it could sit by your front door at night and bark menacingly like a hungry pitbull when it's built-in motion sensor was tripped. Then I would buy one.
    And if it could fetch a beer from the fridge... I would buy two.
  • I'm afraid of these things... what if I happen to like drinking Pepsi?
  • Having owned a Roomba (the much cheaper, competing product from USA) for some time, I can only say that the next big thing will be a robotic floorwasher :-)
  • Nothing bites like a Trilobite.

    Let's hope they choose a different ad company other than the one that gave us "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."

    And it's true, Electroluxes do suck, but in a good way.

    One of at least two times I can think of where sucking is a good thing.

  • I can now program my vacuum cleaner to follow my cats and kids around and vac up everything that they drop in their wake. Considering the sheer amount of flotsam they leave, 1800 $US is money well spent. Trilobite here I come!
  • but it doesn't do windows...
  • Wasn't the Electrolux the name of the thing in Who Frammed Roger Rabbit?

  • One critical missing feature (Score:3, Insightful)

    by chrysalis (50680) on Saturday May 29 2004, @04:46PM (#9286700) Homepage
    This robot is funny, but it lacks a critical feature : the ability to use it... as a normal vaccum.

    AFAIK there is no way to plug a pipe and a brush onto it in order to manually vacuum.

    So this robot can vacuum the floor, but nothing else. You need a second vacuum for the rest.

    • Re:One critical missing feature (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Dun Malg (230075) on Saturday May 29 2004, @05:08PM (#9286792) Homepage
      This robot is funny, but it lacks a critical feature : the ability to use it... as a normal vaccum. AFAIK there is no way to plug a pipe and a brush onto it in order to manually vacuum. So this robot can vacuum the floor, but nothing else. You need a second vacuum for the rest.

      You make a very important point. They've stuck themselves into an awkward position. The Trilobite is too expensive to market as an additional vacuum cleaner, but its feature set is too limited to actually be a vacuum replacement. The Roomba is aimed at an actual defined market niche: it's an inexpensive automated floor sweeper/vacuum intended for periodic use between regular vacuumings.

    • How to mod your Vacuum bot into a fellatio-bot. Electrolux sales at an all time high.

      Is this the proper place to tell of my romantic attachment to our pool filter?
    • but what i wonder is, with all these robots working, wont it get to the point where its less cost effective for us to commute to work (even working for pennies), than to have a robot do it.

      now assuming that the robots dont become sentient(very likely). What sort of economics model would possibly work to justify our existance. no work for humans, no money, no food...... am i right?

      im suspecting
      1. corperations & ceo's will own and control everything, because they are the only ones producing anything.
      2.
      • In regards to (non-sentient) robots taking over all our menial duties, to the point of economic collapse, here's some interesting further reading..

        Manna, Chapter 1 [marshallbrain.com]

        Here's a teaser from the story..

        "Depending on how you want to think about it, it was funny or inevitable or symbolic that the robotic takeover did not start at MIT, NASA, Microsoft or Ford. It started at a Burger-G restaurant in Cary, NC on May 17, 2010. It seemed like such a simple thing at the time, but May 17 marked a pivotal moment in hu

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