T3 India – April 2019

Horizon

GadgetGuru

32 T3 Tomorrow’s Technology Today APRIL 2019 WWW.T3INDIA.COM

T3’s laser-guided autonomous

GADGET GURU helper solves your tech queries

Robotvacuums,itisfairto

say,suck.Someofthem

arealsobad,atleaston

thelowerrungs.Acheaprobot

vacuumwillmeanderoveryour

ruginmuchthesamemanneras

Gurudoeswithhis3AMkebab

afteraparticularlylongnight–

andit’llsimilarlyeatsocksbecause

itcan’tquiteseewhatit’sdoing.

Avoidthelowerend,becauseyou

willspendmoretimedragging

thingsoutofitsstupidbrushes,

emptyingitsdirtbox,andcursing

itsinefficiencythanyouwill

watchingyourcattakean

adorablelittlerideonit.Mid-range

vacs,startingaroundthe`30,000

mark,doalotbetter.Theyusually

havesomekindofinternal

mappingsystembuiltin,sothey

learnthelayoutofyourroomand

coverthewholethingratherthan

careeningaroundidiotically.

They’renotcompletelyself-reliant,

though;GaGu’sNeatoBotvacD6,

despiteitslasernavigation,

frequentlyreversesoverthekids’

toys,andyoustillneedtoempty

itssmalldustcanisterwith

Is there a truly no-effort robot vacuum out there?

VIJAYKUMAR

A

alarming regularity (Guru Towers

is... dirty). For the ultimate in

robotic luxury, iRobot has finally

cracked the formula by getting a

bit meta. The Roomba i7+ (approx.

`75,700 in the US) comprises a

combination of the Roomba i7 vac

and the Clean Base charger, the

latter of which basically includes

a little vacuum for your vacuum,

sucking the dirt out of the roving

unit. Nice as that is, Guru will hold

onto his wallet until iRobot

introduces a third robot which

sucks the filth out of the Clean

Base directly into his outside bin,

then puts it out on a Tuesday

ILLUSTRATIONS: STEPHEN KELLY morning.

A cheap robot vacuum will

meander over your rug in

much the same manner as

Guru does with his 3AM kebab

ABOVE

If you could

replace all your

chores with nap

time you’d...

end up awake at

4am, probably