Swept by a robot

Vacuuming robots are all the rage right now, but our beloved Indian homes are not complete without a little wet mopping. Can Braava fix this?

Irobot is possibly the most famous brand when it comes to cleaning robots; they have been around for decades. The company was formed in 1990 by three members of MIT’s Artificial intelligence lab. They unveiled their first cleaning robot in 2002 and have since sold over eight million robots for homes. Their vacuum cleaning robot is called Roomba and, over the years, that has evolved as one of the top cleaning robots in the industry. Braava is relatively new, and the M6 is its latest innovation.

In the box, you will find the robot, a charging dock, some cleaning liquid and five disposable cleaning pads. We also got two reusable dust pads and mop pads. The robot has a tank inside that you need to fill up with water. You can add part of the liquid cleaning solution, but it is not needed. To start cleaning, attach any of the pads. You need to then download the iRobot app, this will let your robot save a map of the room as it cleans.

The Braava is packed with sensors and uses them to navigate your floor while mapping. You can use this map to have the machine spot clean or even avoid certain areas of the house. The M6 takes around two cleaning runs to create an editable map. However, you can speed the process up by just having it do a mapping run without cleaning. Once the map is in place you can separate rooms, mark out thresholds between rooms for the robot to navigate over. Before mapping is done, the robot can take up to 30-45 minutes to complete a room, after mapping is done, it will do the same room in under 20 minutes.

The sweeping function was pretty good. The machine’s washable dust pad has a bunch of strings that do a good job of trapping dust. You will have to clean the dust from around the robot dock station and on the dock itself as this doesn’t vacuum or store the dust. The mopping also works similarly. The wet pad picks up all sorts of grime, dust bunnies and fine dust, leaving the floor clean. 

This, of course, works better if you have a vacuuming robot. As part of the smart feature set of this device, you can link a vacuuming iRobot to the Braava and have the mopping bot clean up immediately after the Roomba completes its job. The app also lets you programme it to clean the house every time you leave. You can connect the M6 to Google Assistant or Alexa and have it clean individual rooms with a voice command.

Do not use your robot with traditional floor cleaners, as iRobot claims this can spoil the robot. It also leaves the floor sticky as the water to detergent ratio will almost always be wrong. I felt the machine worked just fine with water, though the included cleaner did work better than plain water. A single tank can easily clean 600 sq feet of space on the highest water settings. On the lower setting, it can cover even more ground.

The Braava M6 performed its functions for the most part very well. It got the dirt out of most places, its profile is thin enough to get under a lot of furniture. There are a few limitations to where it can operate, some corners tended to collect dust, which got piled on every time the robot did a cleanup. Dust also accumulated around the charging dock, which needed periodic cleaning. The device also comes only in white colour. This is a problem because it bumps around to find its way and this causes scratches on the bumper, especially around metal cupboards. They are prominent because of the white colour.

Braava, on its own, is also not a complete solution. You will have to eventually deep clean the place maybe every week or two, depending on the clutter in your house. Should you buy it? The Braava M6 is expensive. At Rs 56,900 it is significantly more expensive than even some of iRobots own line up. This is expected as iRobot is considered top of the line. However, iRobot is currently running a Holi promotion that gives you a free Roomba 976 with a purchase of the M6. The promotion ends today. I feel the Braava M6 is expensive and it will come down to whether you want a quality product that works and is easy to use. Other robots do wet mopping in the market, but none do as good a job as this, especially if you pair it with a Roomba.

AI-equipped backpack can replace dogs or canes for the blind

Artificial Intelligence developer Jagadish Mahendran and his team have designed an AI-powered, voice-activated backpack that can help the visually impaired navigate the world around them. The backpack helps detect common challenges such as traffic signs, hanging obstacles, crosswalks, moving objects and changing elevations, all the while running on a low-power device. A Bluetooth-enabled earphone lets the user interact with the system via voice queries and commands, and the system responds with verbal information. 
Watch: https://bit.ly/smdaibackpack

UK releases 50-Pound bank note to honour Alan Turing

Alan Turing was a pioneering British scientist who developed concepts of algorithms and computation. He is widely regarded as the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. He was also responsible for cracking the Nazi coded communication, which in turn shortened World War II by two years. Turing was prosecuted after the war for being gay and pardoned by the British government in 2009. The 50-Pound note will be released on June 23, Turing’s birthday. As part of the launch, you can take part in The Turing Challenge, a set of 12 puzzles that honour the famous code breaker.

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