Dyson plans to study home service robots that can vacuum and clean.

Dyson plans to study home service robots that can vacuum and clean.

Dyson plans to study home service robots, which can vacuum and clean. The company didn't specify any model, but many models look like ordinary robot arms and are suitable for doing specialized housework, such as cleaning and sorting. Dyson plans to study home service robots, which can vacuum and clean.

Dyson plans to study the home service robot, which can vacuum and clean 1. When Dyson is mentioned, many people immediately think of its flagship product-vacuum cleaner. But take a closer look at Dyson's new products in recent years, such as hair dryers, curling irons, leafless fans and air purification headphones ... It is not difficult to find that the brand's "ambition" is getting bigger and bigger, and now it is even "secretly" developing housework robots.

▲ Image from: Dyson

At ICRA 2022 (International Robotics and Automation Conference) held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania not long ago, Dyson revealed that the company is accelerating the development of an autonomous device that can complete housework and other tasks. Judging from the related videos posted by Dyson on the Internet, this is a multifunctional housework robot.

▲ Image from: Dyson

The equipment Dyson is developing is to design a prototype of a home robot similar to a "robot hand". With the help of the mechanical arm, it can grab various objects, grab a teddy bear and put it in the storage box, grab dishes such as plates or cups from the tableware rack, and grab bottled detergent. ...

Dyson's vacuum cleaner used to be powerful, but it always needed manual operation. In addition to moving objects, this home robot can also "liberate" the hands that need to hold a vacuum cleaner and use 3D technology to "scan" and clean the sofa. Snack crumbs that are usually hidden in cracks and difficult to find can't escape this vacuum cleaner mechanical arm.

▲ Image from: Dyson

In order to build this mysterious housework robot, Dyson also invested heavily. Hu Lavington Airport in Wiltshire, England is the former Royal Air Force Base and the largest and most advanced robot center in Britain that Dyson will build.

However, in order to promote Dyson's research in the fields of mechanical engineering, vision system, machine learning and energy storage, and realize the goal of bringing technology into the family by the end of this century, Dyson needs not only space, but also talents.

▲ Image from: Dyson

Dyson hired the first robot expert 20 years ago, and this year he has joined 2000 people, 50% of whom are engineers, scientists and programmers. In order to realize his "ambition" in the field of robotics, Dyson has recruited 250 robot engineers in the fields of computer vision, machine learning, sensors and mechatronics, and it is expected that another 700 will be recruited in related fields in the next five years.

▲ Image from: Dyson

Not only that, Dyson also plans to invest 2.75 billion pounds (including 600 million pounds this year) in investment plans for new technologies, products and facilities, and the robots currently being developed are part of this plan.

At present, Dyson's products can be classified as robots, which are only used for floor cleaning. The first product in this series is DC06, which was designed 20 years ago. Jake Dyson, chief engineer of Dyson, once said that robots are Dyson's future, just like wearable devices.

Maybe it won't be long before we can see Dyson's housework robot shuttling around the room, "grabbing" people from heavy and trivial housework and "throwing them away".

Dyson plans to study home service robots, which can vacuum and clean. Today, the company revealed that they are developing robots for families, not just those that can only clean the floor.

In a video released today, Dyson revealed that the company has actually invested considerable resources in developing robots, which can do more things than just vacuuming.

Robots have been developing vigorously in the industrial environment for a long time. In the industrial environment, the work they handle may be too repetitive, too dangerous, or require higher precision than human beings. But so far, robots have been trying to find their place in the family. This is not to say that consumers don't want robots running around the house, as promised in science fiction, but technology has not caught up with robots like Rosie in the American TV series The Jason Family, or even R2-D2 in Star Wars.

Industrial robots are often specially made for a very specific task, which leads to countless robots of different shapes and sizes forming a complete assembly line. However, no one wants to have five or six different robots in their kitchen, and each robot can only handle a specific housework. Ideally, what we need is a robot that can meet all our requirements.

At present, one of the fields in which robots flourish in the family is cleaning the floor. Robot vacuum cleaners can now absorb dust and debris very effectively, and even mop the floor. Their relatively compact and concise round cake design means that they can be hidden and charged silently after the work is completed. However, other attempts to make small home robots that can roam between rooms failed to persuade consumers to buy them.

Apart from invading privacy and collecting data, no one knows what Amazon's Astro is for. Security function? Sensors and cameras are a more effective, economical and less invasive solution. Do you deliver drinks? Astro boy can't even open the refrigerator. Can a smart speaker with wheels follow you like a puppy? Nobody asked for this.

Dyson is a company famous for thoroughly improving common household appliances such as vacuum cleaners, fans and hair dryers. It is optimistic that it can do the same thing on home robots and is seriously looking for employees to meet this challenge.

In fact, the company is no stranger to robots. Twenty years ago, the company developed Dyson DC06, which is its first independent vacuum cleaner. Although it did a good job in vacuuming, its limited battery life and high price led Dyson to give up this product before the product came out. It was not until 12 that the company announced the follow-up product-Dyson 360 robot vacuum cleaner, which is still a part of its floor cleaning series.

Today, Dyson revealed that their robot ambition will not be limited to cleaning the floor. In order to attract about 700 new robot engineers, Dyson released a video during the International Robotics and Automation Conference held in Philadelphia, showing the company's robot research laboratories in the UK and Singapore. The video also points out that Dyson has been funding doctoral research in the field of robotics in Imperial College London, London for the past ten years.

In this video, Jake Dyson shows the robot research carried out by the company at its previously secret Graff airport facility, including all kinds of research from robot vision to dexterous robot hands that can pick up delicate and strange objects.

Among them, the more striking demonstration includes a robotic arm with a vacuum cleaner at the end, which uses 3D drawing technology to visualize the chair and then clean it. Relieves the pain point that the robot vacuum cleaner can only clean the floor at present. The demonstration also emphasized a more useful application of more powerful robots at home: helping people with mobility difficulties or other challenges, who may not be able to easily complete some daily housework and operations.

The video also shows robots handling delicate dishes and picking up toys, which may be the first place where we will see domestic robots get attention: as auxiliary equipment that can help with housework, and then eventually evolve into all-round robots that can do more things.

Will Dyson become the first robot company that can sweep the floor and meet the needs of consumers? The company firmly believes that robots are an important part of its future (and wearable devices), and it seems that it will cost a lot of R&D funds to achieve this goal, but even the company admits that it may take another ten years for us to make home robots do more things than just vacuuming.

Dyson plans to study home service robots, which can vacuum and clean. Dyson is developing more and more non-mainstream products recently, such as Zone noise canceling headphones, which blow clean air into your face. Now, the company has revealed that it has a complete department and has been secretly developing the prototype of the housework robot.

The company doesn't specify any model, but many models look like ordinary mechanical arms and are suitable for doing specialized housework, such as cleaning and tidying. One of them seems to be designed to vacuum out the seat cushion, and describes an armchair in detail to complete the work. "So this means that I will never find potato chips behind the sofa again?" Jack Dyson, the company's chief engineer, asked a researcher in a video.

Another robot is collecting dishes, or at least putting them on a hanger. Another robot is holding a teddy bear, probably picking something for a child. Dyson also showed a "perception lab", which is about robot vision system. It detects its environment and draws human maps through sensors, cameras and thermal imaging systems.

Dyson is currently recruiting about 700 engineers, which is one of the reasons why it finally decided to show the laboratory (Lavington Airport in Wiltshire, England) after keeping it secret. "What you are developing is very important for motivating and attracting engineers," he said. "Robots, like wearable devices, are Dyson's future."