A robot is coming to your home sooner than you think

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New generation of robot vacuums perform better and use AI technology

It’s now a reality I never imagined would happen, even though I still vividly remember how Rosey the Robot of Jetsons cartoon fame used to care for the family home, clean the dishes, vacuum and even playing with the kids. It all seemed so futuristic at the time.

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Unlike Rosey, our Val doesn’t have any arms or legs, only talks when necessary and doesn’t do the dishes. Then again, there’s no need for the latter – thanks to what was also once deemed a revolutionary cleaning solution which in the early years, consumers weren’t quite sure they needed the dishwasher.

What Val does well is use powerful suction to vacuum virtually any surface area of your home. Val can also (thankfully) wet or dry mop the dark hardwood floors we inherited from our previous owners, floors which much to my wife’s chagrin, show every footprint and spec of dust.

As you may have guessed, Val is a next generation robot vacuum. It’s made by eufy, the same company we’ve turned to over the years for other forms of home automation including lighting and security cameras.

Not unlike dishwashers, the first generation of robot vacuums dating back to the early 2000’ had their shortcomings. They didn’t have a lot of suction, lacked collision detection- and left unattended – could come to an untimely demise by tumbling down the stairs.

What won us over with Val, eufy’s X10 Robot Vacuum and Mop, is that it uses AI technology to automatically detect different surfaces (so it won’t mop your carpet, just your hard surfaces). It also harnesses AI for collision detection, enabling it to avoid everything from kids, pets and furniture to (thankfully) stairs.

All functions are pre-programmed, so that apart from adding water to the robot’s home/charging station and initially sending the unit out to first map your floor’s layout, it’s pretty much a click and “off you go” process.. When the job is done, the robot faithfully tells you it has finished cleaning and heads back home to recharge and enjoy a much deserved break.

Some naysayers might argue that a robot vac is still an unnecessary luxury, what will inevitably win homeowners over is not only are they more efficient, they can save you precious amounts of time.

Additional arguments in favour of embracing robot vacs sooner than later have to do with living more sustainability and striving for a healthier home. For starters, they draw far less energy – typically 60-100 watts than their vacuum cleaner predecessors, which suck up 500-1,500 watts of energy while operating. So while the physical footprint of robot vacs is larger, their carbon footprint is much smaller.

Apart from using a fraction of the energy, there’s another sustainability angle one can’t overlook tied to quality of living. In today’s world Gig economy where a single source of income often isn’t always enough to pay the bills, time is precious. So when a paying job beckons, all too often essential household chores such as cleaning invariably get pushed down the priority ladder.

My prediction is that when you factor in the hundreds of hours saved cleaning our floors over years ahead, along with the benefit of making your home a healthier place to live, we’ll soon view robot vacs in the same light as dishwashers as essential household device.

As such, it’s only a matter of time before you enlist the help of your own “Val” to tackle the cleaning of your floors. And when you do, not only will your floors be cleaner but you’ll have more time to devote to what you care about. And the cost of that is priceless.

Mark Wessel lives in Ridgeway, Ont. and is a passionate advocate for living more sustainably at home and in the greater community. Visit www.markdouglaswessel.com.