Robothespian welcomes visitors to Bristol Robotics Lab during #ERW2015. Image: RIF@Bristol

Bridging the gap between cutting-edge research in academia and the vibrant robotics startup ecosystem is no easy task. This Wednesday in the UK city of Bristol, a free public event titled “From Imagination to Market” — the centre piece of European Robotics Week 2015 — took on that challenge by bringing together leading innovators, researchers, startups and strategists. Below are the key moments and insights from the event.

Organised by euRobotics AISBL (which represents robotics stakeholders in Europe) and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL — one of the largest facilities of its kind in Europe), this event was packed insight, stories and advice.

The day kicked off with an introduction to robots in science fiction by Michael Szollosy and a look at the field of RoboLaw by Andrea Bertolini, before taking a deep dive into the BRL’s state-of-the art research on swarms, human-robot interaction and soft robotics. Then we heard from up-and-coming startups Open Bionics and Reach Robotics, we got an overview of the UK robotics landscape, followed up by inside info from two of the UK’s most successful corporations: Dyson and Ocado. In the middle of all this, we were whisked off to BRL to meet real-life robots before being brought back for a rousing panel discussion to bring all that freshly gained knowledge together.

There was more: the day finished with a robot build-a-thon, where kids aged 5-14 years helped researchers build 100 robots to ‘treat’ artificial cancer cells. Robot stations were also placed throughout Bristol’s Science Museum, showcasing a swarm of 200 coin-sized robots, Thymio and TiddlyBot robots to program, the latest robots from the Robogals team, and students from Digimakers.

Here is a taste of what we learned in just one day:

What could be going from imagination to market in the future

Control in human-robot interaction can take four forms, BRL’s Angelika Peer told us. First is bilateral control, where transparency, task performance, telepresence, robust stability and conflicting requirements need to be taken into account. Then we have shared control — the kind found in robotic assistive walking devices, or in the automation of assembly and transportation tasks, which can be performed either collaboratively with a human operator, or learned from humans by imitation. For the third category — supervisory control — Peer outlined the EU-funded project, VERE, which stands for Virtual Embodiment and Robotic Re-embodiment. Autonomous control makes up the fourth category, and this can be sequential, parallel, or parallel and symmetric.

Sabine Hauert speaking at ERW2015

Taking swarming into the real world through the simulation of basic rules forms the basis for Sabine Hauert’s research at the BRL. Her interest in robot swarms inspired her research in nanoparticles to cure cancer. The challenge is to design the behaviour of the nanoparticles. How do you synchronise them? How sticky should they be to deal effectively with cancer cells? Hauert’s research also translates to robot swarms that work in the thousands, and we’re just now reaching that stage. Watch her TEDx talk here.

BRL’s Jonathan Rossiter has just received a £2.5m UK grant to make trousers out of soft robotics — a futuristic aide to enable those with mobility issues. The limitations of rigid robots have inspired his research, which forms part of the EU’s Robosoft action. With applications in everything from mobile phones to alleviating deep vein thrombosis, soft robotics is really taking off. While it took 15 years to develop adequate motors, Rossiter believes work on materials will move much faster.

So when can we buy this stuff?

“It’s just starting,” said euRobotics road-mapping expert David Bisset. “We tend to use the phrase ‘on the cusp.’ There are a lot of products out there, but long way to go.” The UK landscape, he said, is composed of four different areas: manufacturing and agricultural goods, healthcare and consumer, transport and cities and energy, and utilities and the environment. The drivers are economic, societal (such as the crisis in care for the elderly), markets (which are concerned with efficiency) and, finally, getting robots to do things we don’t want to, such as vacuuming. But, crucially, the infrastructure needs to be in place for robots to become a valued part of activity. The biggest market is healthcare, with a value of £323bn. But it’s not the value of the robots themselves, it’s their impact that’s important, and for this we need strategy, assets, skills clusters and challenges — landing a UAV at Heathrow, mapping out North Sea pipelines, and driving though a town, for instance. Here, SMEs are a very important part of the mix.

Coming soon to a market near you are cutting-edge robotic technologies from two of these SMEs: Open Bionics and Reach Robotics, both originating from the BRL incubator.

Open Bionics is the first company to use 3D scanning and printing to fit a prosthetic limb. The startups’ CEO, Joel Gibbard, relayed how a handheld device that cost a couple of hundred pounds now makes it possible to customise every device, remotely and cost-effectively. The company took time to ask amputees what they wanted, and it turned out they would rather have a prosthetic that is comfortable, light weight, and that helps them celebrate their limb difference over a prosthetic that offers high functionality. To this end, Open Bionics focused on fashion and design, creating a Swarovski crystal-encrusted prosthetic arm, and partnering with Disney for Ironman, Elsa and Star Wars hands that light up (which produces additional benefits). Plus there’s a subscription model in the works so that children can have the size of their prosthetic adjusted as they grow.

Reach Robotics CEO Silas Adekunle at ERW2015

Reach Robotics CEO Silas Adekunle sees a future where video game characters will leap out of the screen into our world. Their robot, MekaMon, can do battle in both the real and virtual worlds, can be customised, and has its very own universe complete with epic battles. The company recently had its first round of VC funding, from Qualcomm and Techstars, among others. “When creating, startups are in the sausage-making business,” he said, “It’s lovely in front but a mess in the back.” Team members have left and been replaced, and there have been 17 grants and 24 product iterations, said Adekunle. MekaMon is on track and due on the market for Christmas 2016.

The startup ecosystem

Support for startups, how to raise the funding, and what infrastructure is needed to allow startups to be successful were covered by the next two speakers, BRL’s Farid Dailami and Renaud Champion of Robolution Capital.

“I’m looking for products that will solve a problem but not to replace someone,” said Champion, speaking of his investment policies.  “What I’m looking for is a bicycle for the mind, and project linked to robotics to solve any kind of issue: ethical, legal or societal.” He had further advice for would-be entrepreneurs:

• Know what’s at the core of your product, not just the IP. What is the service you give to users? What is your competitive advantage?
• Don’t confuse getting feedback with convincing people.
• Be able to name failure in your product development.
• A low [financial] burn rate does not mean you have time to waste.
• Don’t validate your customer hypothesis with investors.
• Start off with Indiegogo and Kickstarter rather than VCs; it’s a question of strategy.

Meanwhile, for those ready to develop and test products, services or processes, Farid Dailami outlined the facilities available at BRL’s Robotics Innovation Facility (RIF).

Robots in the real world

Next up were two success stories from industry. Note that neither Dyson nor Ocado are companies that have previously worked with robots. The former is best known for vacuum cleaners and the latter is an online grocer. Their stories were inspiring because they show the power of robotics when it enters everyday life.

“The only way you are going to get something to work in the real world is by putting it in the real world,” said Dyson’s Mike Aldred. His key take away message was “test test test.” Dyson’s 360 Eye robot vacuum cleaner was 16 years in development and went through 110,000 trials in real homes over more than eight years. Two person-years were spent just in creating a test tool that identifies outliers and anomalies. But Aldred was keen to point out that, since it went on sale in Japan four weeks ago, the 360 Eye has already saved customers 250,000 hours that they could spend doing something else. However, for a robot be taken up, it has to perform better than a human, he said. His advice for would-be innovators was: “Always try to do something that can never possibly work. Innovation comes from thinking broadly and thinking differently.”

Thinking very differently from the average grocer is what got online supermarket Ocado interested in robotics. The company’s robotics research team leader Graham Deacon outlined the two major projects the company is involved with (in collaboration with European research institutes): Secondhands and SoMa, both funded via Horizon 2020 grants. SoMa is about using compliant robotic mechanisms to handle deformable products without conventional geometry, and Secondhands is seeking to develop a humanoid robot to assist maintenance technicians in routine and preventative maintenance. It’s a hugely ambitious exercise in collaborative robotics to develop a safe robot that can work shoulder to shoulder with a human.

Bringing it back to the table

Panel roundup at ERW2015

During the panel discussion that followed, three of the speakers were joined by the BRL’s Innovation Manager Jill Burnet, and there was some final advice on bringing imagination to market.

Researching and manufacturing robotics can be hugely expensive. Dyson spent  £28m on research for the 360 Eye, and manufacturing ran into eight figures, said Mike Aldred. But although this amount of investment is a barrier to many SMEs, Jill Burnet pointed out that incubators, such as the one at BRL, can tackle niche market problems.

Champion’s advice was to identify the core of the product, which might lead you to rethink your manufacturing. If it’s not linked to manufacturing, the SME should sub-contract.

And their top advice?

Mike Aldred: The best person to follow your idea is you. Own your own idea.

Jill Burnet: Find a community to work in, with like minded people, as we’ve done at BRL.

Renaud Champion: It’s a matter of having an idea, but the difference is in having and implementing. You don’t have to the go to the US to develop, Europe is a great place to start your business.

Graham Deacon: The companies I know that continue have passion – so it’s about sticking to it.

Image: Dyson

After a six-month delay to hone the robot for Japanese homes, and a year after the original launch announcement, the Dyson 360 Eye robotic vacuum cleaner has finally gone on sale in stores all over Japan and in Dyson’s new flagship retail store in Tokyo.

A recent TechNavio analysis of the residential robotic vacuum cleaner market forecasts a CAGR of 6.43% over the period 2015-2019. Another research firm predicts a 15% growth rate over the same period. Robovacs (as robotic vacuum cleaners for carpets and floors are called) still form a small percentage of the global vacuum cleaner market (18% according to Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot, makers of the Roomba line of robotic vacuum cleaners), but their acceptance is clearly growing at a steady pace.

The Dyson 360 Eye system is novel in that it creates a panoramic 360º view of the room and then navigates by triangulating fixed visible points. The video below shows the navigational process:

Dyson plans to launch the 360 Eye robot vacuum in the US, China and Europe during 2016.

Today, vacuums represent just half of Dyson’s $2.1bn in sales. The company’s technology pipeline for the next few years includes hiring 3,000 new people, launching 100 new machines and  four brand new product categories — all by 2020.

Advanced robotics will change the world of engineering for good. At Dyson, we’ve been developing robot technology for over 15 years – 200 engineers, 420 patents and £28m has already gone into our first robot vacuum. But our Dyson 360 Eye robot is just the start. The team is advancing the systems that make our robots more intelligent – able to understand environments and navigate with complex sensors and algorithms. The future is robotic.

Robotics Trends compared the 360 Eye to iRobot’s Roomba 980 in a side by side chart that indicates very similar functionality and high selling price, (the Dyson product is $250 more than the Roomba). Dyson claims it’s vacuum generates the highest suction of any robot vacuum. Both have comparable software apps but iRobot claims that the Roomba’s low height enables cleaning in places where the Dyson can’t go. Also, the vision systems are different, particularly in respect of how they map the area, plan their work and localize where they are.

Only sales figures from the marketplace will tell the real story of how consumers perceive any differences.

News Brief:

According to Dyson:

Bosch has installed control electronics into some of its machines to wrongfully increase energy consumption when in use – to cheat the EU energy label … Their behaviour is akin to that seen in the Volkswagen scandal.

Bosch denies the allegations, stating that:

We do not understand these assertions by Dyson and we strenuously reject them. All Bosch & Siemens vacuum cleaners are measured in compliance with European energy regulations. Appliance performance at home is consistent with laboratory performance – and any suggestion to the contrary is grossly misleading.

Read more:

• James Dyson accuses Bosch of cheating ‘like Volkswagen’ | The Telegraph
• Dyson’s robot vacuum is finally here…in Japan…for $1,200 | Mashable
• Bosch sues Dyson for “completely unfounded accusations of cheating” | Ars Technica

You might also be interested in:

• Why is Japan the first to get Dyson’s new 360 Eye?

Image: Tnarik Innael/flickr

Although robotic vacuum cleaners have been on the market for over a decade now, it is only recently that they have started to become pervasive. Innovations in technology have allowed manufacturers to add more cleaning power and convenience features, and this has been a key factor in developing highly efficient and fully automated robotic vacuum cleaners.

Robotic vacuum cleaners, colloquially known as robovacs, are primarily used in residential spaces to clean pools, gutters and floors. Robovacs usually consist of a mobile base, programming software, cleaning system, batteries, and other accessories. Robovacs are autonomous and use intelligent sensors to clean even hard-to-reach surfaces. Robotic vacuum cleaners are also equipped with laser vision, room mapping, and self-empty — features designed to offer convenience and ease of use to the users.

Robovacs still form a miniscule percentage of the global vacuum cleaner market, but their acceptance is growing at a steady pace. Today’s busy lifestyles leave little or no time for home cleaning and other chores. This, coupled with the fact that most modern robotic vacuum cleaners offer fully automatic functionalities, are the prime reasons that have led to the demand for robovacs around the world, especially in developed countries.

Most advanced robovacs are priced around US$500 and above, and the high price has been a challenge for their adoption on a massive scale. However, manufacturers are optimistic that the advanced features of robovacs will compensate for the high price and consumers will eventually see the benefits of robotic vacuum cleaners.

Global Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner Market: Analysis & Region-wise Outlook

The global residential robotic vacuum cleaner market is anticipated to witness a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 15%. The growth will be supported by the factors that we discussed above — time constraints for doing household chores, ease of using the robovacs, and the advent of advanced robovacs. The market value of the residential robotic vacuum cleaner market is anticipated to be worth US$ 3 billion by 2020.

The key markets are the US, Western Europe, and Asia Pacific (APAC). The residential robotic vacuum cleaner market in the US is anticipated to expand at a steady single-digit CAGR through 2020. Consumer awareness about robovacs and coverage of robotic products, in both print and digital media, has helped raise awareness amongst consumers, providing an impetus to the prospects of the residential robotic vacuum cleaner market in the US.

Western Europe is another lucrative region for the residential robotic vacuum cleaner market, and it is anticipated that in France, Germany, and UK the demand for robotic vacuum cleaners will be robust in the next five years.

APAC is another lucrative region for robotic vacuum cleaners. Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong are the regions where consumer awareness about robotic vacuum cleaners is relatively high compared to other APAC countries. Among these key regions, the Japanese residential robotic vacuum cleaner market is notable, due to the launch of innovative products in the country. Most talked-about has been the launch of the Dyson 360 Eye by Dyson Ltd., a UK. based technology firm. The Dyson 360 Eye was launched in September 2014 and is reported to have cost Dyson Ltd. a whopping US$47m in development and R&D. Although the device was launched amidst much fanfare and received positive reviews from analysts, it has its task cut out against iRobot Corp., which has around 80% share of the Japanese robotic vacuum cleaner market.

iRobot Corp., a US based advanced technology company, has maintained its dominance in the global residential robotic vacuum cleaner market. The company has been at the forefront of offering robotic vacuum cleaners with advanced features. Its range of Roomba® and Braava® vacuum cleaners have been well received in the market. Other key players in the residential robotic vacuum cleaners market include Electrolux, Hanool Robotics, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Metapo, Inc., and LG Electronics, Inc.

Although still at a nascent stage, the market for residential robotic vacuum cleaners will witness steady growth in the future on account of technological advancement in the field of robotics, growing demand from tech-savvy consumers, and greater awareness.

The information presented in this article is sourced from Future Market Insights’ upcoming research report, Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2014 – 2020

I have a bone to pick with you! Robotic vacuum cleaners didn’t just become mainstream as you said in your article. We have sold 12 million by now and are the biggest seller in Samsung’s home (Korea).

He went on to say that Dyson is a small player in the global vacuum marketplace and that Samsung has gone through many iterations of improvement yet iRobot’s Roomba’s still outsell them in their core market.

Robo Vacuums: Samsung (left) and Dyson (right)

Brooks was referring to my two articles in The Robot Report where I commented about Samsung’s and Dyson’s new robotic vacuums. He wasn’t really angry; just having fun. But I began to think about what he was referring to, considering whether I had said something incorrect or possibly hurtful. The second of my two articles had the headline: Latest robotic vacuum product launches change industry from niche to mainstream.

In those articles I said:

Should iRobot be worried? Definitely! Dyson has considerable experience in the higher-end vacuuming market – selling more than 10 million devices a year! Dyson generated nearly $10 billion in revenue in 2013 of which at least 40% is vacuum-related versus iRobot’s $487 million. Consequently, if the new Dyson 360 Eye robotic vacuum is as good as other Dyson vacuum cleaners, there is much reason for iRobot to worry.

iRobot, over the past 10 years, has sold 10 million Roombas, mostly through online distribution methods. With the global consumer distribution channels that both Dyson and Samsung bring, it’s conceivable that either (or both) could sell 10 million of their products in a single year!

In the two articles, I was attempting to describe the transition that often happens with unique consumer products as they switch from niche markets of early adopters to the massively larger mainstream household products market. And even though iRobot has sold 10 million Roombas over a 10-year period, that’s just a fraction of the 50+ million global vacuums sold annually for $11 billion (source: TechNavio).

Both Dyson and Samsung have upgraded the vacuuming function of their robotic cleaners to be equivalent to non-robotic cleaners. Consequently, they have endorsed what iRobot invented many years ago: a convenient robotic method of cleaning carpets and floors. But their endorsement comes at the expense of competition that is sure to happen in the years to come.

This post originally appeared on Akihabara News. 

The Dyson 360 Eye autonomous vacuum cleaner went public in Tokyo on September 4th, and it got a lot of attention – enough to make almost any product from almost any industry jealous. There are several obvious reasons: Dyson products are aesthetically pleasing, Dyson products are unique, Dyson products perform well above average across the board, and Dyson is badass at marketing. Just look at their website; a company that makes cleaning machines and fans has a slicker web presence than … actually, than most companies that make or do anything at all.

Also, there’s the new device itself. The steadily plodding iterations of iRobot’s Roomba and its legion of copycats are old hat, and we aren’t really impressed anymore. While the 360 Eye performs the same task, it stands out, and just kinda has that new robot smell. The talking points/broad strokes/things to know are:

• Dyson 360 Eye: Sixteen Years of Research; $47 million Investment
• Cyclone Suction Tech: Miniaturized and Incorporated
• Navigation & Mapping: Innovative 360-Degree Visual Mapping
• App Enabled: Remotely Activate/Schedule Cleanings from iOS or Android
• Mobility: Purple Tank Tracks for Carpet, Hard Surfaces, and Obstacle Negotiation
• Color Variations: Fuchsia; Blue
• Dimensions: Width 242 × Depth 230 × Height 120mm; 2.37kg
• Price: Initially Estimated at $1,200
• Availability: Spring 2015; Japan Only, Other Markets to Follow

… and that last point brings us to:

Q. Why Japan first? Why Japan only (for a time, anyway)?

A. Japan is first now, because Japan was first then (and the market is huge)
In design and engineering circles, James Dyson is famous for meticulous attention to both the performance and the appearance of his company’s products. Lore tells of Dyson creating over 5000 prototype designs before deciding that he’d perfected his first ‘Dual Cyclone’ dust/dirt separation tech. We’re pretty sure someone’s counting scribbles on cocktail napkins there, but the point remains.

In the early 1980s, Dyson finally had a model he believed ready for production, but no household appliance makers in his native UK or in the US were interested. Whether accurate or not, lore also speaks of a Little Guy Makes Good story, i.e., he was dismissed by Hoover and friends because the home cleaning giants were worried about monkeywrenching their comfortable hold on a hugely lucrative market.

But guess who was interested: Japanese appliance company Apex, Inc. They licensed Dyson’s technology and in 1983 produced the G-Force Cleaner. The big pink vacuum was a hit, and it was with the earnings from this licensing venture that Dyson the man created Dyson the company – and things have gone quite well since. So, in a way, bringing the 360 Eye to Japan before all other markets is a full-circle .

And it’s a good place to start 
At the nation-state level, Japan is currently the world’s largest market for puck-shaped robotic cleaners , and there are a number of homegrown and foreign models available. However, as we reported last year, the Roomba, available in Japan for 10 years now, dominates with a 75% share. And it’s important to note that it’s 75% of a fairly large pie:

…Sales in Japan are booming. According to Seed Planning (a Japanese market research and consulting firm), since 2008 the home cleaning robot market has seen a 6-fold increase in yearly sales (approx. 380,000 units sold in 2012), and they project sales of 900,000 units in 2018. In a nation of about 128 million people, if realized that’s some serious market penetration. Given that homes in Japan generally aren’t all that big and don’t have a lot of carpeting, it’s all the more impressive. Among Japan’s massive, dominant middle-class, such expenditures are a luxury but not quite as economically extravagant as one might think…

That was us a year ago, and not a whole lot has changed. The Roomba still rules, but lookout iRobot – Japan’s known the Dyson name for 20 years, and the 360 Eye is coming for you .

http://youtu.be/4y_9V7O1pac

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Recent robotic vacuum launches change industry from niche to mainstream
• Housework 2.0: The battle of the robot vacuum cleaners begins!
• Has Dyson’s robotic dream become a reality?
• Dyson invests £5m in robot lab

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Recent robotic vacuum cleaner product launches by Dyson and Samsung have transformed what once was a niche market of early adopters and robot enthusiasts into a marketplace of serious consumer products for home cleaning.

Both Dyson and Samsung have upgraded the vacuuming function of their robotic cleaners to be equivalent to non-robotic cleaners. Consequently, they have endorsed what iRobot invented many years ago: a convenient robotic method of cleaning carpets and floors.

But until these two new products, particularly the Dyson one, the marketplace has been small and limited. One could characterize the buyers as early adopters of new technology, particularly those fascinated with robotics. They were fun to have and own… but they weren’t really good cleaning devices. Dyson has changed that with the introduction of their 360 Eye product and Samsung has followed suit with their new Powerbot VR9000. Both were displayed last week at the IFA Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin. Dyson had quite large crowds surrounding their new robotic vacuum cleaner.

iRobot, over the past 10 years, has sold 10 million Roombas, mostly through online distribution methods. With the global distribution channels that both Dyson and Samsung bring, it’s conceivable that either (or both) could sell 10 million of their products next year thereby doubling 10 years of worldwide sales in a single year!

The future is ripe for automated devices in the home and over the next few years we are likely to see many of these capture the home market for floor cleaning, sanitizing of kitchen and bathroom floors, carpet cleaning, etc. iRobot pioneered the concept with their Roombas and Scoobas but now the big players (Dyson, Samsung and LG) are stepping in, bringing up the quality of the product and performance to the level needed to satisfy the general consumer market and then to manufacture, distribute, market and service the product in massive quantities, which they are very good at doing.

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Why is Japan the first to get Dyson’s new 360 Eye?
• Housework 2.0: The battle of the robot vacuum cleaners begins!
• Has Dyson’s robotic dream become a reality?
• Dyson invests £5m in robot lab

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

The public may be expecting to see robot cyborgs battle it out in distant galaxies, but back here on earth the battle of the robots is taking on a distinctively quotidian reality. The double announcements today of Dyson’s 360 Eye and Samsung’s Powerbot VR9000 come as a challenge to robot vacuum market leader iRobot’s Roomba, and hails the arrival of a new competitive era of the robot-as-appliance .

http://youtu.be/OadhuICDAjk

While Dyson is a relative giant on the appliance scene, and Samsung is an electronic powerhouse in its own right, Roomba currently boasts dominance in the more niche robot vacuum market. In a recent report, iRobot claims to have sold over 10 million robot vacuum cleaners since 2002, and counts more than 50 countries in its distribution network.

With those figures in mind, it’s no wonder that iRobot responded to today’s announcement of the 360 Eye in lock step with a video riposte that subtly pokes at Dyson for its appliance-based roots:

http://youtu.be/SYm4oLyHpCA

While the video suggests that iRobot’s advantage is that it has always been a robot company (their YouTube description says: “We’ve always believed certain tasks are better left to a robot”), it’s ironic that iRobot only started to make money once it realized that people didn’t want to buy robots as much as they wanted to buy appliances. As iRobot CEO Colin Angle has been quoted as saying:

It took me becoming a vacuum cleaner salesman to actually have some success for my company, my investors and myself.

Andra Keay from Silicon Valley Robotic comments on how tough it can be for a high-tech startup to break into the more traditional appliance market: “iRobot didn’t really start making money until they embraced online sales; the established appliance market was too tough to make a big dent in. Yet they’ve now become the most widely distributed robot in the world.”

Is there room for two more robot vacuums in what many have previously thought of as a novelty market?  Or is the “novelty” market now becoming mainstream?

Clearly Dyson and Samsung have done their homework, or they wouldn’t have launched competing products. And with Dyson investing £5m in a lab at Imperial College London, they obviously have their longterm sights set on the robotics community.

iRobot has been doing its own market research, too. In the above-mentioned report, iRobot claims that the robot vacuum business is at an explosion point, with a “huge addressable market” and a “$7 billion annual market opportunity”. With those kinds of numbers, it’s no wonder that other players are jumping into the game.

Which company is likely to emerge victorious in this battle for the consumers pocketbook? It may be too early to tell. Keay says that “Dyson is definitely upping the ante though with a smart phone connected vacuum cleaner. And with Dyson’s distribution networks and reputation, it will be interesting to see how the public adopts Housework 2.0.”

One thing is for certain, though: competition is a sure sign of growth in this space.

With contributions by Yannis Erripis, Andra Keay, John Payne, and Frank Tobe.

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Why is Japan the first to get Dyson’s new 360 Eye?
• Recent robotic vacuum launches change industry from niche to mainstream
• Has Dyson’s robotic dream become reality?
• Dyson launches new robotic vacuum cleaner
• Dyson invests £5m in robot lab

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

James Dyson announced his new 360 Eye robotic vacuum cleaner, which goes on sale in Japan later this year for $1,250. It will then be available in the UK, Europe, China and Australia later in 2015.

The new 360 Eye system is sleek, shiny, and, according to Dyson, has the most suction of all of its competitors. It also has continuous tank tracks engineered for accurate movement over all floors, and a smartphone app from which you can start, pause, stop and schedule the device. It utilizes its 360° SLAM vision system to map and navigate a room so it knows where it is, where it’s been and where it’s yet to clean.

http://youtu.be/NS5fgZHg6Pk

Should iRobot be worried? Definitely! Over the past 10 years iRobot has sold 10 million robotic vacuum cleaners. Now along comes Dyson who has considerable experience in the higher-end vacuuming market – selling more than 10 million vacuum cleaners a year! Dyson generated nearly $10 billion in revenue in 2013 vs. iRobot’s $487 million. Consequently, if the new 360 Eye is as good as other Dyson vacuum cleaners, there is much reason for iRobot to worry.

Dyson emphasizes in the video above the thought, skill and quality of the new 360 Eye vacuum cleaner and that he’s worked on this for many years to make it great. The robotic aspect is just part of the equation. Colin Angle, iRobot’s CEO, has repeatedly said:

The idea that a humanoid robot with arms would push a vacuum cleaner is an image that has set many expectations and, in some ways, has set back the industry, when, by just rethinking what needs to be done, we can build a product that satisfies a specific need (vacuuming), as iRobot did with their Roomba line of robotic vacuums. I used to think that I was a self-respecting high-tech entrepreneur, but it took me becoming a vacuum cleaner salesman to actually have some success for my company, my investors and myself.

Now it’s up to consumers to choose from a long list of reputable robot vacuum cleaner vendors (e.g.: LG, Samsung, iRobot), which now includes Dyson.

Has Dyson finally cracked its 16-year mission to create a robot vacuum cleaner?  The company’s  teaser video hints at a new release which looks a lot like a rival for the best-selling Roomba, and perfectly illustrates how fast the conditions necessary to create viable robotic products are evolving. 

Dyson’s mysterious video, posted on YouTube (below), heralds a 4 September release. The only piece of information to accompany it reads: ‘16 years. 200 engineers. £28 million investment. The result? Tell us what you think it is.’

The device moves around a bit and zooms in and out—interesting, but not as interesting as the glimpse of what looks like its location-analysis technology. It hints at a number of other interesting features too.

What’s certain is that, with one of the best-known brand names around, Dyson has done its research before going public in a market as hot as robotics is right now.

Earlier this year, the company invested £5m in a lab at Imperial College London designed to help robots ‘understand and adapt to the world around them,’  Then, in an interview in February, company founder Sir James Dyson (pictured) suggested a robotic cleaner might be in the pipeline and would use computer vision to navigate a room.

Imperial’s Professor Davison has also spoken about the importance of  location tracking: “We will research and develop systems that allow machines to both understand and perceive their surroundings – using vision to achieve it,” he said. “A truly intelligent domestic robot needs to complete complex everyday tasks while adapting to a constantly changing environment.”

Dyson is also planning a £250m expansion of one of its UK sites, at Malmesbury, which could provide up to 3,000 new jobs.

Prime time for consumer robotics

More than anything, Dyson’s upcoming launch proves that consumer robotics is finally ready for prime time. In a great up-sum of why,  published on TechCrunch, computer scientists Rudina Seseri and Wan Li Zhu, who both work for VC ’s Fairhaven Capital, explain why the conditions now are perfect.

“In recent years,” they say, “we have seen accelerated levels of innovation in both software and hardware that are now driving new possibilities for consumer readiness and adoption of personal robotics.”

This as happened on a number of levels:

Proliferation of devices, compute, and bandwidth. Instead of requiring expensive custom onboard computing, robots are now able to leverage hardware, smartphones and cloud computing for processing and storage. This has implications on both cost and availability of data for machine perception and learning.

Progress in natural language processing, speech, vision and machine learning – a self-reinforcing loop: As machines can better understand the real world, they learn at a faster rate.

API-fication of online services. The ability for machines to tap into multiple online data sources and services allows them to quickly stitch together value, reducing time and cost to go to market. Location-based data, financial and weather, and increasingly healthcare data are all examples.

They and many others active in the field, also believe that the robotics future won’t look much like the current mass-visage of the technology and that, instead, “artificially intelligent devices will take on a multitude of forms where the form factor will more closely match its functions and use case.”

Many more will be in the form of embedded intelligence within everyday systems we are already familiar with. And soft robotics further promises to open up the number of applications the technology will have.

The key, according to Suseri and Zhu, is market acceptance, which will be  driven by reliability and safety. In lieu of this, the technology’s advance will progress slowly, with  interim solutions to pave the way.  Cars are in the front line, with incremental modifications such as the sensory-enabled brakes already in the market.

With a product launch that has many in the industry on the edge of their seats, Dyson is positioning for a leading part in the coming automation of the home  and a major slice of the ripening consumer robotics market. It’s also an opportunity for a major UK-based company to show some robot muscle.

http://youtu.be/L6ReNFlxqJc

This article was originally published on RAS SIG – the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Special Interest Group – part of Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Network.

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