Technology:
The domestic
cleaning robot market is growing very fast, and is estimated to increase from
200,000 units in 2010 to 1,000,000 units in 2020. Roomba from the U.S. is
dominant, but two Japanese cleaning robots are chasing Roomba. One is Cocorobo from Sharp and the other is Smarbo from Toshiba Home Appliance. The former
cleans a room while dancing if instructed and understands several foreign
languages as if it has mind (cocoro). The latter cleans a room twice. In the
second cleaning, it cleans a room at a right angle to the angle of the first
cleaning for complete clean up.
According to the Japan Electric Manufacturers’ Association (JEMA), a cleaner is used for six
minutes per day on average, meaning that it is used for 10 hours a year should
it be used for 100 days a year. As is often the case, Japanese makers were too
much absorbed in reducing noise and increasing suction to build even better
models and one step behind Roomba in marketing without working out new
concepts. In the cleaning robot market, it has become critical to offer models
with functions required by users and put them on the market at competitive
prices. The race to put additional functions and values to a cleaning robot is
heating up.
Sharp’s cleaning robot Cocorobo
Toshiba’s cleaning robot Smarbo
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