When you think ‘robotic vacuum cleaner’, those circular bois that float around your apartment bumping into everything no doubt come to mind. But what if I told you that Dyson is taking the phrase ‘robotic vacuum cleaner’ one step further, with an actual robot?
Well, Dyson today detailed its ambitions in advanced robotics, signalling its plan to “accelerate development of an autonomous device capable of household chores”.
In a video Dyson released, we can see robotic hands grasping objects such as plates and as the hero image of this article shows, toys. Which is kind-of creepy, not going to lie. The company isn’t diverting too far from its robotic floor-based vacuums, rather it’s been trying to take that tech a little further. All behind closed doors.
“There’s a big future in robotics, saving people time, performing chores for people and improving people’s daily lives,” explains Jake Dyson, a designer at Dyson and the son of founder James Dyson, in the video.
Until now, Dyson’s robots have been floor-based vacuum cleaners – the first of which, the DC06, was designed 20 years ago.
“We’ve been working for about 20 years now on floor care robotics, which are puck format robots – and ours really do vacuum, by the way – but aside from that, we’ve also been doing a lot of research into robotics, which no one’s aware of,” Dyson (the man) added.
Dyson has actually now set up a number of offices (in England and in Singapore), to bring these robot dreams to life. Dyson is now looking for engineers to help it, um, “work on the robot brain”. The master plan, Dyson said, is to create the UK’s largest, most advanced, robotics centre at Hullavington Airfield and to bring the technology into people’s homes by the end of the decade.
I wonder how long before I don’t ever have to pack a dishwasher again or change my cat’s litterbox thanks to a Dyson robot? The future is incredible.