RX1 Robot
Let your robot do the cleaning for you…
There is much excitement about leading kitchen appliance manufacturer, Miele, launching its very ;irst robovac in the form of the Scout RX1. 05 March 2015, Johannesburg: There has been much hype about Miele’s newly launched Scout RX1, and it is easy to understand why – the new robovac is characterised by Smart Navigation, good cleaning performance and the excellent charge and durability of its lithium-ion battery pack. Says Miele’s
Liam Gawne: “With this robovac product, Miele is fairly and squarely placing the focus on the quality of cleaning and user convenience.” The Scout RX1, which Miele's Bielefeld plant developed in collaboration with a young Korean robotics specialist, incorporates a systematic navigation system. This means that it covers the area to be cleaned in parallel tracks instead of randomly crisscrossing the room, the more common approach adopted by the majority of models which use chaotic navigation.
The Scout RX1’s systematic navigation system achieves more reliable coverage and saves time and battery power. Furthermore, complex Qloor plans involving several rooms can be vacuumed in their entirety, including return trips to the base on completion of the task and for recharging. Miele's Smart Navigation relies on a gyro sensor, which measures rotation and changes in direction. This alone would be sufQicient to systematically clean a room, however Miele’s Scout RX1 has a high-quality digital camera on board as well, which serves to scan the ceiling of the room several times a minute to ensure additional precision. Says Liam: “The interplay of gyro sensor and ceilingscanning camera ensures that the perimeters of rooms and difQicult-to-access areas are cleaned without gaps.”
Miele robovac also has seven infrared sensors on the front of the unit. These scan a 180° area ahead of the machine in order to avoid collisions with furniture and other obstacles. “In contrast to most other common systems on the market, these sensors stop the vacuum cleaner in good time before a collision occurs. Three further sensors below the unit prevent the Scout RX1 from falling down stairs,” explains Liam. Particularly effective cleaning is guaranteed by Miele’s Triple Cleaning System, notes Liam: “Two long rotating side brushes target difQicult areas along the walls of rooms or along items of furniture and sweep dirt towards the centre of the unit.
Once there, a removable beater bar picks up coarser particles. In the third stage, a fan transports the Qiner dust into the dust box. This container has a capacity of 0.6 litres and can be removed at the touch of the button. An AirClean Qilter ensures clean room air.” Four cleaning programmes guarantee maximum cleaning convenience: • In “Auto” mode, the unit travels through all rooms. • “Spot” mode is intended for a deQined area of at most 1.80m², for example to clean up crumbs from under the breakfast table. • In “Corner” mode, all rooms are Qirst cleaned in “Auto” before returning to clean all edge areas once again. • For particularly fast cleaning, Miele offers its “Turbo” mode in which the robovac cleans the entire home, but travels in straight lines with greater spacing.
In this case, cleaning is somewhat more thorough than in “Auto” mode, but only takes half as long. Overall, a battery charge is able to clean an area of up to 150m², corresponding to a duration of approximately 120 minutes. When cleaning larger areas, the unit pauses as and when it needs to return to its base for recharging. Work is automatically resumed after approximately 2 hours at the precise point where cleaning was interrupted earlier. Even after 300 recharging cycles, the battery still has the capacity it had when new. Says Liam: “With the RX1 robovac’s impressive combination of battery charge and battery life expectancy, Miele currently represents the benchmark on the robovac market.”
The Scout RX1 has good traction on all common Qloor coverings and is even able to negotiate height differences of up to 2cm, for example thresholds and the edges of rugs. Rooms or areas that are to be excluded from cleaning can be cordoned off with a magnetic strip. The Scout RX1 is started either at the controls on the unit itself, using the remote control handset or by programming the timer to start and Qinish at pre-deQined times.
The design of the Miele robovac is both high-quality and elegant, explains Liam: “This is achieved by the white characters on a black background in the display, which are not only easily legible, but also blend in perfectly with the Miele product family design. A rear-printed plastic insert on the top of the machine further underlines the noble overall impression.
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