Neato Robotics, a California-based company making robot vacuum cleaners, has released an update to enable zone cleaning for its devices.
All Neato devices use the company’s LaserSmart mapping and navigation via LIDAR technology. They can scan and map each room at homes and create the most efficient way to clean the house.
With the software update, owners of the flagship vacuum cleaner, the Botvac D7 Connected, will be able to customize the device’s cleaning schedules further. They can divide a room into several small cleaning zones for targeted cleaning. For instance, if a corner of the carpet in the living room gets dirty more often than other areas, users can program in the Neato mobile app and customize their cleaning need to focus on the corner.
The No-Go Lines feature, on the other side, sets up a zone that the vacuum cleaner is not allowed to enter.
The Neato Botvac D3 Connected model, which offers basic features and shorter battery life than the flagship model, will also get the update to have the new features.
Cleaning robotic vacuums with mapping and location technology have received much attention in smart home applications. iRobot’s Roomba i7+, for example, is working with Google to enable home automation with the mapping data. The vacuum cleaner may be able to locate smart lighting devices around the house using assigned name or location data.
In the future, home robots might be able to know where the kitchen and refrigerator are, and grab a bottle of beer for the homeowners when they are watching sport games.
The latest software update for Neato devices has been released. The D7 flagship robot vacuum cleaner, which works with both Amazon Echo and Google Home, costs US$799.