A clean deal: is a robot capable of cleaning an apartment without human intervention

Smart vacuum cleaners are firmly established in the apartments of Russians. These home robots on wheels have long learned not only how to sweep the floor, but also how to wash it. They were loved not only by humans, but also by cats (and they are not the only ones). And in general, these "smart guys" at a certain point went beyond a simple device for home cleaning. One of the newest gadgets in this huge and colorful family is the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller Complete. Izvestia investigated whether he was really as good at cleaning as the manufacturer claimed, and what else this device could help its owner with.

How a smart vacuum cleaner sweeps and cleans the floor

The Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller Complete Smart cleaning robot vacuum cleaner is a cross between large household appliances and furniture. The vacuum cleaner itself coexists with a not very small and weighty base station-a bedside table. All this, along with spare parts and accessories (filters, spare garbage bags, two types of shampoo, etc.), is packed in a box that barely fits into the back seat of a taxi. It was only the two of them who managed to lift the package up the stairs in a building without an elevator. Accordingly, space will have to be freed up to accommodate all this stuff in the apartment.

When the bedside table and the vacuum cleaner finally fell into place, it became much easier. In most cases, an ordinary cleaning vacuum cleaner is a rather inconvenient thing. You need to pull out a dry cleaning bag from it, fill a special container with clean water, then open the vacuum cleaner again and pour out the dirty one — all this is long, dirty and wet. In the Aqua10 Ultra Roller, two bucket containers - one with clean water, the other for dirty water — are carefully inserted into the bedside table. There is also a container for shampoo and animal odor removers, as well as a bag for dry garbage. The vacuum cleaner itself refills with water and chemicals, and it unloads the collected items into the bowels of the station, which are then easily cleaned.

You can command the Aqua10 Ultra Roller either by voice or via the app (as it seemed to the test drive participants, it's easier to do this from a smartphone). In the application, you can order cleaning for every taste: wet (and even wet — there are gradations), dry, dry and wet, make it suck up dirt more strongly or, conversely, work at night — try asking for a regular vacuum cleaner. We chose the dry and wet ones. Aqua10 Ultra Roller gurgled while refueling with water, warned in a human voice that he was cleaning a mop, and went for a walk around the apartment.

"Vacuum cleaner +water=puddles." This formula is known to users of cleaning vacuum cleaners. The test drive participants added artificial intelligence to this formula and, just in case, stocked up on rags. But they didn't come in handy. There was no water at all on the parquet floor and laminate. The water supply control system with 12 nozzles precisely regulates the flow of water for washing floors, ensuring uniform moistening of the mop. AquaRoll technology ensures that fresh water is continuously sprayed onto the roller mop during floor cleaning to remove dirt, eliminating the use of dirty water for floor cleaning. At the same time, the roller mop scraper squeezes out dirty water, which is then sent to a container for used water under high pressure to prevent outflow and secondary contamination.

As a result of washing, the used water turned out to be cleaner than when washing with a regular mop — the general cleaning of the apartment, as summarized by the wife of the author of this text, is still better to do with your hands. But for everyday cleaning, the gadget is simply not replaceable, she said.

How Aqua10 Ultra Roller develops an apartment

After the first turn on, the vacuum cleaner, leaving its "locker" on a special ramp, begins to inspect and study the apartment. How the Aqua10 Ultra Roller determines what, when, and how to clean is clear to him alone: the device can, for example, stop in the middle of a room and return to another one that has already been cleaned. Or walk around the same place several times, and it's hard to reach: at the same time, the vacuum cleaner "puffs", tries, and hard to hum gears. The ProLeap system with robotic extendable legs that lift the device's body allows it to navigate difficult areas such as door sills and steps.

It looks quite comical — the vacuum cleaner releases special legs, with which it climbs over the sills or thick bent chair legs. He climbed under one of the chairs three times in this way, despite the fact that it was possible to drive under him from the other side without hindrance. And for some reason, the device is put into a stupor by the wires lying on the floor. He moves through some of them (quite carefully, by the way), refuses to go through some of them - he pretends that there is nothing further to clean up.

At first, the Aqua10 Ultra Roller tried to be selective and, if you will, character-driven. He rode quite briskly on the clean and smooth parquet in the rooms, but when he got to the rugs in the hallway, he stood in front of them, turned around and drove back, pretending not to notice them.

— No, you'll clean up here too! My wife exclaimed. And, grabbing the vacuum cleaner by the sides, she put it by the front door. The vacuum cleaner stood next to him for a long time (apparently taken aback by such treatment), but then resigned himself and, nevertheless, went to clean the hallway.

Overall, the impressions of dry cleaning are quite contradictory. After cleaning, dust and debris were found in the container of an ordinary, stupid and sentimental vacuum cleaner. But, on the other hand, it is very difficult to reach under the bed and cupboards with it, and in some corners it is impossible at all. The Aqua10 Ultra Roller did just fine. The robot vacuum cleaner is equipped with an extendable lidar system, which allows it to deftly maneuver under low sofas and beds, where traditional cleaning devices are difficult to reach. He completely lowers the lidar under low furniture and continues to work using two AI-enabled cameras and LED lighting, thus processing spaces inaccessible to conventional vacuum cleaners, mops and brooms.

For some reason, the Aqua10 Ultra Roller is very fond of the floor scales that "live" under the bed. He stubbornly tried to climb them with the help of his support legs, and in the end, he succeeded. At the same time, the vacuum cleaner pushed the scales into the far corner — and, of course, never got them back.

Who needs a robot vacuum cleaner and why?

Speaking of carpets, rugs, and rugs. They cannot be cleaned with cleaning vacuum cleaners — the water is not completely removed from them, it often remains under the carpet, provoking the formation of mold. The Aqua10 Ultra Roller was provided with two long-pile bedside mats. At first, the robot vacuum cleaner turned up its nose at them, but then it decided to put them in order. As a result, they turned out to be only slightly wet. The Aqua10 Ultra Roller has an AutoSea roller mop protection, according to the description of the vacuum cleaner. When driving on carpets, the roller mop lid automatically closes to prevent water from getting on the carpet.

Aqua10 Ultra Roller is not only a vacuum cleaner, but also an intelligent home observation point. The Dreame app has a feature that turns a vacuum cleaner into a surveillance camera on wheels. It can be activated and you can look at what is happening at home through the robot's camera eyes. It's hard to say if this is a good help for a home video surveillance system or not, but it's a good option to search for various kinds of objects rolled under beds, sofas and cupboards: sending a vacuum cleaner to search is much more comfortable than doing them yourself, lying on the floor with a flashlight. Using the built-in cameras, Dreame also offers to observe pets and take photos of them for blogs. Aqua10 Ultra Roller can also find a pet in the apartment itself and take a photo of it, according to the description of the vacuum cleaner. You can even talk to a cat or dog (or someone else in your apartment) through a vacuum cleaner - it has a voice communication function. Overall, according to Dreame, the Aqua10 Ultra Roller is very pet-friendly. On the one hand, when cleaning, he carefully bypasses them and their trays and bowls. On the other hand, the device has a special function for recognizing food and litter for the cat litter scattered on the floor: the vacuum cleaner has a special mode for cleaning such garbage.

Of course, the Aqua10 Ultra Roller is an interesting and functional gadget for both smart and simple homes. It contains all the latest achievements and technologies of an intelligent vacuum cleaner building. The test drive showed that it is better to do thorough cleaning with your own hands, using a mop, a rag and a regular vacuum cleaner. But for those who have children and pets, such a robot vacuum cleaner is simply not a substitute. When crumbs, leftover dry food, and the like are constantly flying to the floor, buying such a device is the best way to keep the house clean. Finally, there are those who do light housecleaning every day. For them, the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller will be a good helper, saving time and effort.