Anker’s affordable Eufy RoboVac 11S drops to $160 at Amazon

Spring cleaning has a way of sneaking up on us all, but luckily you can outsource the vacuuming portion of your chores to a semi-autonomous robot. Anker’s Eufy brand has a number of solid robot vacuums at various prices, and many of them have been discounted on Amazon. Key among them is the Eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 11S, which is $70 off and down to $160. This model earned a spot in our budget robot vacuum guide thanks to its slim frame and solid cleaning chops.

Buy Eufy RoboVac 11S at Amazon – $160Shop Eufy robot vacuums at Amazon

The most important thing to know about the RoboVac 11S is that it does not have WiFi connectivity. That means you won’t be able to control it from your phone, but it does come with a physical remote that lets you do things like set cleaning schedules and up the suction power using BoostIQ or Max modes. It cleans both hard and carpeted floors well and has pretty decent collision avoidance. Most robot vacuums will bump into furniture every now and then, and the 11S is no different, but it’s better at avoiding obstacles than many others at this price range. It’s also less than three inches high, so it may be able to slip under some of your furniture to clean hard-to-reach spots. It’s hard to beat a robot vacuum for $160, so if you can live without WiFi features, the 11S is a solid option.

In addition to the RoboVac 11S, there are a number of other Eufy robot vacuums on sale right now. The RoboVac G30 is essentially an updated version of the 11S with more suction power and WiFi connectivity, and it’s $90 cheaper than usual and down to $230. Another one of our favorites, the RoboVac X8 Hybrid, is down to $530 thanks to a clippable $120 coupon on its product page. It held its own against premium Shark and iRobot devices, earning a spot in our best robot vacuums guide. Despite not having a self-cleaning base, the X8 Hybrid impressed us with its easy setup, strong cleaning abilities, accurate home mapping and its 250-milliliter water tank than you can fill to turn the vacuum into a smart mop.

Buy Eufy RoboVac G30 at Amazon – $230Buy Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid at Amazon – $530

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Magnetic slime ‘robot’ could help recover swallowed objects

Soft robots may soon be more flexible than ever… and a tad creepy. As The Guardianreports, researchers have developed a magnetic slime “robot” that can shift into different shapes to grab objects. It can encircle a group of pellets, for instance, and even stretch out in multiple directions to grab items on opposite sides. It’s self-healing, too. The result might induce some nightmares for the squeamish and is more than a little reminiscent of Spider-Man‘s symbiotic Venom, but it’s surprisingly effective.

The slime is made from the blend of polyvinyl alcohol (a polymer), borax and neodymium magnet particles. The result is a non-Newtonian fluid that behaves like a liquid or solid depending on force, and can be controlled using external magnets. There are no robotics inside the slime at present, but you can steer it like a robot— and the “ultimate goal” is to use it like one, according to researcher and co-creator Li Zhang.

There are numerous problems left to solve. On top of fitting robotics into such a soft design, the scientists also want to prevent the toxic neodymium particles from seeping out. A layer of silica in this current slime helps, but safety inside a living being might depend on limiting contact. If the technology becomes sufficiently safe and effective, though, it could help doctors recover swallowed objects and otherwise squeeze robots into places where they were previously impractical.

NVIDIA’s more powerful ‘AI brain’ for robots is available now for $1,999

If you’ve been eager to use NVIDIA’s more powerful robotics ‘brain’ for projects, you now have your chance — provided you’re willing to pay a premium. The company is now selling the Jetson AGX Orin developer kit for $1,999. The palm-sized computing device is now billed as eight times more powerful than Jetson AGX Xavier (275 trillion operations per second, or TOPS) thanks to its 12-core ARM Cortex-A78AE CPUs, Ampere-based GPU and upgrades to its AI accelerators, interfaces, memory bandwidth and sensor support.

You’ll have to wait a while longer for production-ready units. They’ll be available in the fourth quarter of the year starting at $399 for a ‘basic’ Orin NX kit with six CPU cores, a 1,792-core GPU, 8GB of RAM and 70 TOPS of performance. To match the claimed 275 TOPS, you’ll need to use a $1,599 Orin module with the full 12 CPU cores, 2,048-core GPU and 64GB of RAM.

NVIDIA is doing more to give robot creators a helping hand, though. It’s launching an Isaac Nova Orin platform that includes two Jetson AGX Orin modules and the sensor suite needed for a robot to detect the world around it. The platform can handle up to six cameras, three LiDAR units and eight ultrasonic sensors. You’ll also get the tools needed to simulate the robot, not to mention support for software that helps speed up mapping, navigation and perception. NVIDIA hadn’t mentioned pricing as of this writing, but it’s safe to presume the extra module and sensors will cost significantly more.

You probably won’t use the new Jetson hardware for amateur projects, but it could have a significant impact on the technology you use or buy. NVIDIA is keen to note existing Jetson users like John Deere (which uses the tech in an upcoming autonomous tractor) and Hyundai Robotics. Orin’s extra performance isn’t guaranteed to lead to more intelligent robots, but it should at least help those robots handle tasks quickly.

Roomba robot vacuums gain Siri voice support as part of big update

iRobot’s latest software update gives its Roomba robot vacuums and Braava jet robot mops the ability to respond to Siri voice commands. The Genius 4.0 Home Intelligence update adds Siri Shortcut Integration to the iRobot Home app, allowing iOS users to connect their devices to Apple’s voice assistant. Similar to Google Assistant and Alexa users, they can set up their custom phrases or simply say “Hey Siri, ask Roomba to clean everywhere” to start the vacuum. 

Genius 4.0 also gives users the capability to create customizable smart maps for the Roomba i3 and i3+ models, which they can access if they want their devices to clean specific rooms in the house. They can also create custom cleaning routines based on their schedules, automatons and the rooms they want to send the vacuum to. These particular features are now available in the Americas and will make their way to customers in Europe, Middle East and Africa by the end of the third quarter.

Users who own a Roomba s9/s9+, Roomba j7/j7+, Roomba i7/i7+ and Braava jet m6 — all Imprint Smart Mapping-capable robots — will have more control over how their robots clean, as well. They can program their machines to thoroughly clean a high traffic area, for instance, and give rooms that aren’t always occupied a quick pass.

To prevent accidental starts, owners will be able to activate a Child & Pet Lock option in the iRobot Home app. When switched on, it deactivates the physical clean button on WiFi-enabled vacuums and mops, which can then only be activated through the application. In addition, a new Do Not Disturb feature ensures the machines won’t switch on at times the user specifies, such as when they’re sleeping or expected to be on video calls for work or for school. Finally, the update gives the Roomba j7 and j7+ the ability to avoid clothing and towels on the floor, in addition to the other objects (including poop!) they can already recognize. 

While Do Not Disturb is already available globally, the other features might take some time to reach all users. The software update has already started making its way to customers worldwide, but the rollout won’t be finished until the end of June. 

Shark’s AI Robot Vacuum with Base is $150 off at Amazon

The first day of spring is right around the corner and if you’re looking for some help cleaning up your home, a robot vacuum could do the trick. Even better if you can snag one with self-emptying features, which allow you to basically ignore the robo-vac until you have to clean the base once every month or so. One of our favorites, the Shark AI Robot Vacuum with Base, is $150 off right now at Amazon, bringing it down to $500.

Buy Shark AI Robot Vacuum with Base at Amazon – $500

The AV2501AE model is discounted, which is slightly different than the model we included in our guide (RV2502AE) in that it has a black and bronze design. However, both vacuums share a number of key features including self-cleaning brush rolls that help pick up pet hair, LiDAR navigation, UltraClean Mode, obstacle avoidance, Alexa and Google Assistant support and a bagless, HEPA base. The latter helps Shark’s robo-vac stand out among most of the competition — you don’t have to pay extra for proprietary garbage bags, rather, you simply detach a portion of the base when you need to empty it and then snap it back into place.

In addition to that convenience, Shark’s machine impressed us with its cleaning power and its solid mapping skills. The first thing you’ll have it do is an “Explore Run,” in which it creates a map of your home that you can then label with room names in the companion mobile app. This makes it easy to send the robo-vac to clean only your bedroom when necessary, and you can create no-go zones as well. With a 120-minute run time, the machine can clean a good portion of any home before it needs more juice, and its handy “recharge and resume” feature allows it to power up and get back to cleaning without any additional prompting.

Shark’s mobile app is pretty easy to use as well, and it lets you create cleaning schedules, start jobs from anywhere and activate UltraClean Mode when you need all of the suction power possible to clean up big messes. Overall, it’s an excellent self-emptying robot vacuum that’s competitively priced, especially when discounted like this.

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Kawasaki made a rideable robotic goat

Move over, Spot, there’s a new quadruped robot in town. Meet Kawasaki’s Bex. Unveiled at last week’s International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo, Bex is a four-legged robot that’s inexplicably modeled after an Ibex, a species of wild goat that’s native to parts of Eurasia and Africa.

Bex came out of the company’s Kaleido program, which has seen it work on bipedal robots since 2015. Partway through that project, Kawasaki’s engineers decided to build a robot that could both move quickly across level ground and navigate tricky terrain. As you can see from the video spotted by Gizmodo, Bex features a set of wheels on its knees, allowing it to move faster on smooth surfaces than the glacial pace it plods along when walking. 

Bex can carry approximately 220 pounds of cargo. In addition to transporting construction materials and the like, Kawasaki envisions it carrying out remote industrial site inspections, much like Spot is already doing at Hyundai factories in Korea. To that end, the top half of Bex is fully modular, so it doesn’t have to look like a goat. But if you ask us, what kind of monster wouldn’t want a goat protecting their factories? 

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