Photo: Stock.Xchng

If you hate housework and love gadgets, the robotic vacuum cleaner is just the thing for you. iRobot’s Roomba was the first ever robotic vacuum cleaner, and it took the world by storm. Now, there is some competition on the market. Say hello to Neato and Samsung’s Navibot, some even smarter robots to do your chores for you. The Roomba was introduced by iRobot in 2002, and since then, more than 3 million have been sold. While the Roomba clearly has a lot of fans, and it remains the robot to beat, there have been some criticisms of the world’s first robotic vacuum cleaner.

Roomba complaints

Photo: iRobot

The biggest complaint is that it doesn’t always cover an area completely. Also making consumers unhappy, it has a very small bin that limits how much it can clean on a single battery charge. Now, new home robots are offering some competition, and promising a better product.

Neato

Photo: Neato

Because Neato is smarter, it can solve some of these problems. It has mapping technology, allowing it a 360-degree view of a room. When it has scanned and mapped a room, Neato doesn’t have to use a zigzag cleaning pattern like the Roomba. It cleans back and forth, methodically, just like you would do. Neato returns to its docking station as soon as it is finished cleaning, and at just four inches high, can slide under beds and couches.

Samsung’s Navibot

Samsung’s Navibot, to be released in the UK in April, is the latest in robotic vacuum cleaners. It has a lot of features similar to the Neato, though. It also makes a map of room, taking up to 30 photos per second. This map allows it to know what furniture to dodge, the quickest route to cleaning an entire room, and even remembers which areas have already been vacuumed.

The way of the future

With ever better models being released, robot vacuum cleaners seem set to be the way of the future. Gone are the days when robotic vacuum cleaners clumsily bumped into furniture. Now they map out your house so that they know where they are going, and even know when they need to be recharged. They may be expensive now, but these nifty little robots could soon be a part of every home.