Irobot announces eight new robots vacuum cleaners

After a tumultuous 2024, in which Irobot lost his Founder and CEOColin angleamazon left his acquisition plans, and the company fired a large part of its staff, Irobot has returned with a great shake of its robotic vacuum line.

This week, the company that invented the Vacuum robot more than 20 years ago announced eight new models that are definitely not the inhabitants to which it is accustomed. Not only are they seen totally different, but they also work differently, thanks to a new Roomba characteristic: Lidar navigation and mapping.

The new alignment begins at $ 299 and rises to $ 999. It has the 105 rental series of entry level and vacuum crapers with the option of a auto-vacío spring, the 205 series with a new compactor of dust on board and the high-end models and 505 high-end that bring dual mopulation pads to the Irobot family for the first time. The new bots come in black and white and will be available to book on March 18 in Iobot.com in the United States and selected European markets.

According to the company, this is the larger products in the history of Irobot. But that is not the biggest surprise. Irobot finally add the navigation of Lidar and the room mapping, a technology used by most competitors, it is a great change that should bring a faster mapping and more characteristics to string. The company is also launching a new Irobot application that adds a real -time cleaning view helped by Lidar and has begun to publish suction power specifications for its robots.

All new models have 7,000PA and four suction levels, according to Irobot Product Management leader Warren Fernández. While it points out that it is not about suction power, this is significantly lower than competition. The newest model of Roborock, Saros 10, has 22,000PA (but costs $ 1,600).

Facing the growing competition of Chinese manufacturers, Irobot has returned to the drawing board with this new line. With a completely new industrial design, Roombs have been redesigned from scratch to accommodate the camera change based on the camera. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.automate.org/vision/blogs/what-is-visual-slam-technology-and-what-is-it-used-for”>Navigation of Vsllam To lidar.

In an interview with The edge, Fernández said that Irobot made the change now after evaluating technology for some time because they believe that Lidar is finally mature and affordable enough to fit in his product roadmap.

The main benefit of Lidar is the most intelligent mapping for the inhabitants of lower price, including the specific cleaning of the room and the ability to create clean areas and maintain the maintenance areas in the application. For high -end models, it should mean faster mapping and more agile navigation.

A ultrasonic carpet detection sensor is also new in all inhabitants, so robots can intelligently avoid carpets when traveling. Mopa models now have three water flow levels and the only Irobot SmartScrub option. Previously, most of these characteristics were reserved for high -end rooms, which began at $ 500.

Most of the models now have an Lidar tower at the top, and automatic docks have a completely new appearance. In general, new robes look much more like the models of the main competitors of Irobot: Roborock, Dreame and Ecovacs.

The most elegant model in the new line is the Roomba Roomba of $ 999 (€ 799) Plus 505 Combo Robot Plus Autowash Dock (yes, the name has worsened). This is the first Roomba with double rotation pads to scrub hard floors. You can also extend your right outpeaker to clean along the edges and lift your 10 mm rapes to avoid low -pot carpets. Roborock and Dreame have had variations in these characteristics for a while.

The 505 comes with a new multifunction spring that washes and dries the rammage pads, fill in the tank of traperation and empty the container. It also adds drying with heating, something that Combo 10 Max, the Irobot robot vacuum cleaner / traper that was launched last summer, does not have. Like the 10 Max, the 505 has an obstacle detection with ai, thanks to a camera on board, so it must recognize and avoid things such as cables, socks and pet waste.

Fernández says that the 10 Max is still the current flagship model, since it has a better cleaning power than 505, but refused to give suction specifications. Use a different MOP, a retractable system that places the MOP on top of the bot to avoid carpets. According to Fernández, the 505 is the only redout among the new models that will support the standard of the Smart House of Matter, which also the Max also has. All new models will admit existing integrations with amazon Alexa, Siri de Apple and Google Home.

The Roomba Plus 405 Combo Robot Plus Autowash Dock has one step below $ 799 (€ 699). It maintains the same basic functionality: a combined vacuum cleaner and a mop with rotating map pads and a multifunctional dock, but differs from 505 in several ways. It cannot extend its traffickers, it has no obstacle detection with ai (since there is no camera) and lacks drying with a mop with heating. It also has the standard navigation of Clearview Lidar de Irobot, while 505 has a PRO version, which Fernández says it is more precise and can see smaller objects.

Budget alignment is also obtaining a great increase. The new Roba 105 and 205 series have the same mapping based on Lidar, a 7,000PA suction, virtual maintenance areas, automatic carpet detection and avoidance, and detection and avoidance capabilities of objects such as 405, all features are not available in the I5 line of entry level and essential line.

Both new models come in a vacuum option or a combination that adds a removable flat microfiber mushroom pad. The 105 works with a self-surrounding spring, but 205 uses the new dust compactor technology. “It's like a miniaturized version of a garbage compactor,” says Fernández. He says it can last two months before emptying, compared to 75 days at the Self-Vacío dock. You do not need to find space for a self-vacio dock, which means that you can paste your robot under a sofa or bed, and added that there is no strong empty noise or the need to buy container bags.

Both series have the same price: $ 449 for the 105 Vac Robot Plus AutoMpty Dock; $ 469 (€ 449) for 105 Robot Combo Plus AutoMpty Dock; $ 449 for the Robot Vac Compactor 205 205; and $ 469 (€ 449) for combined robot 205 DustCompactor. (This is more expensive than the essential string line with a self-vacio dock, but those have no lidar). If you are emptying a container once a week, you can opt for the Robot 105 VAC for $ 299 or the 105 combined robot for $ 319 (€ 299).

There are some innovations here; The dust compactor will attract those who do not like the additional disorder of those large self-vacios docks. I have seen something similar in the Narwal Forum x Ultra and I discovered that it was very good. But in general, this alignment represents Irobot Capitulation for competition.

For years, under the founder and CEO Colin Angle, the company remained firm in its belief that its higher cleaning capacity and smarter robots were simply better. It seems that the new CEO, Gary Cohen, took a look at the competitive panorama and decided that what people really want is to turn pads, torres lidar and suction specifications, so that is what you are getting. “Last year, we reinvent our Irobot research and development laboratories, and these robots are the result of our world -class engineers and the brilliance of designers,” he said in a press release.

This approach “If you cannot defeat them, join them” is clearly designed to save the company with difficulties. The price is competitive and combined with the name of Roomba, it is a strategy that could work well, assuming that the products are as good and reliable as the inhabitants of Roombs have traditionally been.

I really want to try the new robots to see how they accumulate for current string, which for a long time have been some of my favorite robots vacuum cleaners. But for today, I am a little sad to see decades of innovation and company in Irobot to be trampled in what seems to be a boring career towards the environment.