They can both understand home space and move freely, and may be the first to open the door to the intelligent era.

A “#broomchallenge” (# 立 扫把 挑战) swept through the social network the day before yesterday. Netizens around the world are keen to take pictures of their brooms standing up without support. Word of mouth: This inspiration comes from NASA, and behind it is a mysterious cosmic gravity and celestial phenomena. Even NASA had to come forward to dispel the rumors.

But to many people’s surprise is another fact: they no longer have brooms in their homes. The sweeping robot is taking over human cleaning.

In the sweeping robot industry, consumer robot company iRobot is probably the oldest player. Founded 30 years ago, it has tried many businesses that look crazy this year: developing lunar exploration robots, nano robots to clear blood vessels, mine clearance robots, and oil pipeline robots. Eventually it entered the field of sweeping robots and took root.

iRobot was launched on the NASDAQ in 2005 and has become the sweeping robot company with the highest market value and largest share in the world. According to official statements, iRobot dominates 60% of the market at prices above 2,000 yuan outside China.

According to iRobot chairman and CEO Colin Angle, the difference between sweeping robots is not hardware, but software. Its ultimate goal is to completely take over the cleaning work from humans, so it must be perfect: be able to understand the home space and environment, be able to highly customize the cleaning scheme (such as bypassing pet basins), and be able to autonomously clean complicated walls and corners.

Colin Angle even predicts that if robots can understand the space and environment we are in, we can develop many new forms, such as going to the kitchen refrigerator to help us get drinks. The sweeping robot is the first to have this ability, and is currently in the initial stage of the “golden age”. It also has the ability to upgrade over-the-air over the phone. Colin even predicts that robots with arms will enter the home environment in the next 5-8 years.

Interview | Interview with iRobot CEO: In 5-8 years, home robots will

iRobot Chairman and Chief Executive OfficerColin Angle, picture provided by iRobot

With the confidence in the entire market, on the 30th anniversary of its founding, iRobot brought its best and most expensive product, Roomba S9 +, to China and launched it online on March 8.

This robot has three characteristics: First, it is equipped with PerfectEdge technology equipped with an optical 3D sensor, which can clean complicated corners. For example, if you encounter an interior corner, you will take a step back. Allow sufficient cleaning time. Turn back and go forward. Secondly, it is equipped with Anti-Allergen anti-allergen system, which improves suction by 40 times. The inhaled air can only be discharged through the filter, which can filter 99% of pollen and mold. Third, this robot can be highly customized, such as being able to autonomously understand the layout of different rooms and then clean up according to human requirements.

According to the research report, the mainstream domestic products are still below 2,000 yuan, this product is really high-end. But Colin doesn’t think he will be defeated in the stormy competition with Xiaomi and Cobos, but is aimed at high-end users who are seeking a perfect experience: they don’t want to do any supplementary cleaning, and iRobot can take over all cleaning work.

Interview | Interview with iRobot CEO: In 5-8 years, home robots will

In addition to the press conference, Colin Angle, Chairman and CEO of iRobot also accepted interviews from a number of media. The following is an excerpt:

Q: This year is the 30th anniversary of iRobot. Is there any new plan for the market and product strategy?

Colin Angle: Our robot design has entered a new stage. At this stage, the mechanical system becomes a platform that can last for many years. On this basis, iRobot continues to develop artificial intelligence, machine learning, visual understanding, and human-computer interaction. We hope that in the end, robots will bring us a personalized experience through their intelligence.

Q: There are also many brands rising rapidly in China. Does iRobot still have confidence in the development of the Chinese market? Where does confidence come from?

Colin Angle: We are very confident in the future of iRobot in China. Many Chinese brand products have been sold globally for many years. These products are usually relatively simple in function and the price range is relatively low. They have achieved some success in markets outside the iRobot focus area, which has little impact on us.

We mentioned the differentiation of robots in the future. The difference is not reflected in the hardware part visible to the naked eye, but in the artificial intelligence part, that is, to achieve accurate cleaning. At this point, the gap between our competitors and us is difficult to overcome, because it requires iRobot to accumulate nearly 30 years of technology to form the underlying technology.

Needless to say, in the future, the task of sweeping the floor will definitely be left to the robots. We believe that the entire sweeping robot market will continue to grow vigorously for many years to come.

Q: In the face of fierce competition from Xiaomi and Cobos, has iRobot given up on China’s low-end market?

Colin Angle: iRobot’s global product strategy is to have both entry-level and high-end products. When we include the latest research and development achievements and technology in the newly launched high-end products, the price when it is released will of course be the highest. But over time, better products are introduced and the price of those products decreases.

Outside of China, iRobot is a leader in the home robot industry, with a market share of more than 2,000 yuan already reaching 60%. There are indeed many low-priced products in the Chinese market. Our strategy in the Chinese market is to focus on the high-end sweeping robot market where our advantages are more prominent.

With the growth of the entire industry, what determines the quality of a product in the future is its software. This is an opportunity for us because when we bring new robotic intelligence to the market, we have new pricing power. In 2019, iRobot invested 140 million US dollars in research and development, accounting for about 12% of revenue. It is No.1 in the global home robot industry. At present, we have more than 1,500 patents worldwide.

When we developed Roomba s9 +, we were concerned about two aspects. One is using a brand new 3D sensor on the front end of the robot.Build a model to understand the specifics of the floor and corners. Another selling point is that it can make cleaning more accurate. Users can tell the cleaning robot which room to scan and when to clean it, such as listing pet water basins as cleaning exclusion zones.

In the future, we will perform software upgrades (ie, OTA, over-the-air programming) on ​​the product every few months, so that users can enjoy some new features. This is very much like a smart phone. When we buy a mobile phone, we have some basic functions and can download applications. Now this thing is also to be achieved on the sweeping robot.

Thirty years after the development of the robot, we have entered a new time node, that is, the importance of intelligence and software in the robot itself is becoming larger and larger than its mechanical system Much more important.

Q: You mentioned that the intelligence of a robot is not the same as autonomy. How far are we from the golden age of robots? What are the signs and characteristics of the golden age? What efforts does iRobot make?

Colin Angle: Regarding robot intelligence is not the same as autonomy. One thing I want to emphasize is that robots must cooperate with humans in the same room Partnership, further understanding the space and environment in which it lives, giving people more control over robots, thereby achieving cooperation and trust between the two parties.

If we want to deploy a robot with an arm at home in the future, which can help us to pick up some objects, the most important point is to let the robot understand the space and environment. When humans told it to go to the kitchen refrigerator to help me get a bottle of drink, it knew what path to take and where to find the refrigerator.

At present, sweeping robots are the first consumer robots to have the basic ability to understand space and the environment. The golden age of robots will depend on whether we can truly understand the space and environment in which they are located, and then we can develop more robots in different forms and do more for us.

So I would say that we are now in an early stage of the golden age of robots. Nowadays we have accelerated the research and development of space understanding of robots, so in the next 5 to 8 years, I believe that the robot with arms I just mentioned can be realized in the home environment.

Q: In the future smart home system, what kind of position does iRobot want to occupy? Will there be categories outside the sweeping robot in the future? Will it work with more tech companies?

Colin Angle: The part that iRobot invests the most is the related technology and research and development of the robot’s space understanding ability. Home robot to solve practical problems for humans.

Now we are also cooperating with many technology companies, mainly to share iRobot’s technology accumulation in the home space understanding, to help technology companies make their products better. Of course, such cooperation is two-way and mutually beneficial, forming a growing ecosystem, and iRobot will be a very important part of this ecosystem in the future.

iRobot is committed to becoming a leader in the artificial intelligence industry, as well as a leader in home space understanding and home robotics. The Roomba s9 + we released this time is actually the best example. It is a product combining engineering physical hardware and innovative artificial intelligence. You will see more of these products in the future, they are both a combination of software and hardware.

Q: Many sweeping robots with multiple functions, such as three-in-one scrubbing and washing, are now more and more. Is this a trend for the entire market?

Colin Angle: First of all, we have to figure out, what is the user experience of a 3-in-1 product? iRobot also develops cleaning robots and cleaning robots, but we develop them separately, the reason is that we believe that this three-in-one product cannot bring a perfect experience to customers, and it must make some compromises in both cleaning and cleaning .

For example, a sweeping robot with a floor cleaning function cannot clean the walls or corners. These places are also concentrated by allergens and dust mites, which means that we still need to clean manually. At the same time, a floor cleaning machine with a sweeping function cannot clean both the carpet and the floor, and the floor cleaning may not be very clean. In addition, you can’t make more personalized settings.

We consider a multi-functional robot as a relatively low-end robot, and it will look more economical, but if you look at the completion of sweeping or scrubbing, it is only 100 points. 20-30 points. It just completed the two tasks of sweeping and mopping.

iRobot does not want to compromise, but to give customers a solution, this solution is the best in both the sweeping and mopping.

We hopeGive customers more voice, let him customize the cleaning method, and finally liberate our hands, so that we no longer need to clean the floor. As a brand of high-end robots, we have always been solving practical problems, not easy problems. We ultimately hope that the robot can become a human partner, and do our best to get rid of floor cleaning and other things from human to-dos and give it completely to the robot without humans having to do anything.

Title and illustration from iRobot