Matsushita Develops Cleaning Robot
Matsushita Electric Industrial, the maker of Panasonic-brand products, unveiled a prototype of a vacuuming robot with an autonomous control system. The household robot roams around a room, detects dust and avoids walls and furniture with 50 different sensors. It operates by sensing the shape of the room, the type of floor surface and the amount of dirt.
The robot looks like an ordinary vacuum cleaner without a hose and can operate for 55 minutes on one charge. Field-testing in Japanese households of the machine will begin in May. The commercial launch date of the machine is not set but Matsushita hopes to bring the products to the store shelves in a few years, according to Akira Kadota, a spokesperson for Matsushita.
Moderator Comment: What impact will robotics have
on the daily private lives of consumers in the years ahead?
The science of robotics has transformed manufacturing.
It is simply a matter of time before it does the same for consumer households.
[George
Anderson – Moderator]