Dyson put someone else’s motor into its robot vacuum

Dyson, a company built on high-speed motor engineering, confirmed this Edge The latest robotic vacuum cleaner does not use a Dyson motor. the The Spot & Scrub Ai robot vacuum and mop was launched recently Nathan Lawson McLean, senior design director at Dyson, said it was co-designed Edge.

According to Lawson McLean, the device integrates “new and existing Dyson technologies with other platforms.” Specifically, the new lidar-based navigation technology and vacuum actuator for the robot were developed by a third party. “It’s not one of our V10 engines, it’s one of our partner technologies,” Lawson McLean said.

The fact that Dyson got help with its latest robot vacuum He was a suspect from the day it was announced Late last year. The Spot+ Scrub is a complete departure from previous Dyson models Obvious similarities To other robot vacuums on the market. But this is the first time Dyson has done this She admitted that she helped build her pioneering robotic vacuum.

Outsourcing the manufacturing of key components is not unusual in the world of robotic vacuum manufacturers or manufacturing in general. But for a company that has built its brand on high-speed motors and cyclone vacuum technology, it’s a surprising move.

So why did Dyson abandon its signature technology in favor of its latest robot vacuum? Speed ​​and cost, according to Lawson McLean. “We really wanted to enter the market in this new space of wet, dry and self-discharging,” he said. “How can we do it quickly?” The answer: get help.

While Dyson is developing robotic floor cleaning machines Since the early 2000sit is years behind Chinese competitors such as Roborock, Ecovacs, and even US-based iRobot, the maker of the Roomba. The latter did Similar axis From vision-based navigation to lidar technology last year, by working with a Chinese original design manufacturer Shenzhen Besia Robotics Co., Ltd To produce completely New line of Roombas.

Dyson would not confirm which partner it worked with, however Detectives reddit and Industry observers It has identified it as Picea, which also works with Xiaomi, Anker (Eufy) and Shark, among others. (Pesia iRobot was recently acquired after its bankruptcy.)

Dyson’s previous attempt at making robotic vacuum cleaners – incl 360 eyes and 360 degree view – Distinctive Dyson high speed motors. They were excellent vacuums, but had difficulty navigating independently. Both robots were used Camera-based vSLAM Navigation that was slow and unreliable.

Through Spot + Scrub, Dyson has worked with a “partner” to add more reliable lidar-based navigation technology. Based on reviewsIt was a big upgrade. Clearly, this transformation was necessary to keep the company competitive in a crowded market. But, in the process, they also dropped Dyson’s best feature: its powerful motor.

Lawson McLean claims that this trade-off tells only half the story. “We never look at the actuators alone. (…) The piping, inlet pressure, outlet pressure, etc. in Spot + Scrub, they all have a huge amount of Dyson engineering wrapped around them,” he says.

Additionally, he says much of the robot uses “new and existing Dyson technologies,” including Dyson-developed AI stain detection, a 12-point humidification system for self-cleaning wet rollers, and “Hurricane” Bagless Dock – Part of the company’s first multi-functional automated dock.

But it’s still a Dyson vacuum without the Dyson motor, and in Edgea testThe Spot+ Scrub vacuum performed much worse than previous Dyson robots, especially on carpets.

While he declined to share any future roadmaps, Lawson McLean hinted that Dyson could be working on creating a robot that would successfully combine Dyson’s motor technology and sweeping heritage with advances in cleaning technology, machine learning and key features of robot vacuums. But Spot + Scrub is not like that. Instead, he says it’s a “balancing act”, a product designed to keep Dyson competitive in a market where it has so far failed to make a significant impact.

Photography by Jennifer Pattison Toohey/The Verge