The Roomba cleaning robot better make some room for the Smarbo. The Smarbo was announced by Toshiba Japan today, and the name most likely stands for "Smart Robot", according to TechCrunch. The "robot" is designed to clean houses, exactly like the Roomba. However, I'm sure that the specs themselves are far more interesting than the list of things the Smarbo can clean.
Toshiba has put in some interesting features, to be sure. The Smarbo has two processors (Toshiba, at this time, has not released info on these), a camera, and 38 sensors (gyrometers, acceleration, etc). Toshiba says that the robot can clean a room size of 100 square meters in approximately 90 minutes. For those of us who measure things in feet and inches, that is approximately 1,076 square feet. So, in other words, a 2,000 square foot house could be cleaned in 3 hours. Better yet, Toshiba says that for every 100 square meters the Smarbo cleans, it only costs 2 yen (or $0.03).
The Smarbo circumvents objects in its vicinity and can also be programmed by buyers. "Spot mode", for example, will clean a 1.5×1.5 meter square and then force the Smarbo back to its charging station.
Toshiba plans to start selling the device on October 1, at a price of 90251.75 yen (or $1,175). The price does include the charging station and remote control. Unfortunately, the device is Japan only. Check out the images below to see the device (Images Courtesy of Toshiba Japan).
Gallery: Smarbo
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