Although they claim to make cleaning easier, robot vacuums often require as much attention and care as a toddler. The Ascender wants to change that, and its creators are claiming itâs the first robovac that can both climb and clean stairs: an obstacle thatâs usually a death trap for most autonomous cleaners.
The earliest robovacs didnât quite deliver on the promise of eliminating the chore of vacuuming. Theyâd randomly crisscross a room and bounce off walls with limited battery life and even less suction power. But theyâve vastly improved over the years, and now not only intelligently navigate the rooms of a house while deftly avoiding obstacles, but they can also autonomously find their way back to a charging base when their battery gets low, empty their own dirt bins, and some models even mop, as well.
The one thing robovacs have never been able to do is navigate between multiple floors of a house, or, more specifically, get from one floor to another without a catastrophic fall down a flight of stairs. Many robovacs have been completely destroyed this way, even with added intelligence and edge detection thatâs supposed to keep them safe.
This is exactly the reason the Ascender caught our eye. Itâs from a company called Migo Robotics which claims to have a team with âoutstanding experts from Google, Boston Dynamics, Dyson, and Ecovacs, working to drive innovation in the industry.â Itâs a robovac that can both suck up dirt and mop floors, but thatâs not what makes it noteworthy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKqc4hILOms
When it rolls up to a set of stairs, the Ascender doesnât change direction. Instead, it uses a pair of what look like articulated legs to hoist the body of the robovac up onto the step, before lifting up those two legs and transforming back into what looks more or less like a run-of-the-mill robovac. The robot is then able to clean the step using omni-directional wheels that allow it to maneuver from side to side without having to turn. This process then presumably happens over and over again until the robovac reaches the next floor. A similar process, but in reverse, would presumably allow it to descend stairs, too.
The Migo Robotics website doesnât include a lot of details on the Ascenderâs capabilities, but it will apparently rely on LiDAR scanners to map the rooms in a home in order to keep track of where itâs cleaned, plan the most efficient routes to a requested area that needs cleaning, and allow users to set up areas to avoid using a companion mobile app. Specifics on battery life or runtime arenât provided other than a claim that the Ascender can clean up to 5,167 square feet of floors, but that will probably be much less after a stair climb.
The Ascender isnât available yet, but the Migo Robotics website is encouraging interested parties to make a $5 deposit to a crowdfunding campaign, which will allow them to later purchase the robovac for $999, or about $400 less than the expected MSRP of $1,399. Delivery is expected as early as August, but the promotional video, as well as images of the Ascender on the website, all appear to be renders. Backing a crowdfunded product is always risky, and while backers arenât being asked to front the entire cost of the robot, it might be a good idea to hold onto that $5 until we at least see a real video of the Ascender in action, and know for sure it can climb and ascend stairs without putting a $1,000 robot at risk.
