Cleaner Robot

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Cleaner robots are a type of robot created with the purpose of cleaning various surfaces. These often, but not always, resemble some sort of cleaning appliance. Cleaner robots of this type will most likely resemble a vacuum cleaner, dubbed a Robovac.

History

Cleaner robots, also known as robovacs, are an older idea than believed. One of the earliest examples of such a robot is featured in the 1956 science fiction novel The Door Into Summer. In this book, it is described as being 'a better vacuum cleaner.'[1] Such robots have roots in reality, with the iRobot Roomba (introduced in 2002) being the most well known. Around the same time, Electrolux introduced a robovac named Trilobite.[2] It should be noted that cleaner robots in fiction are much more heavily anthropomorphized than most real robovacs.

In popular culture

  • Rosie (The Jetsons)
  • MO (Wall-E)
  • Tetsuko (Super Milk Chan)
  • QT (Space Dandy)
  • XJ-4 (My Life as a Teenage Robot)

References

  1. Heinlein, Robert A (1957). The Door into Summer. New York: Signet. pp. 20–21.
  2. Robovac, History of Robotic Vacuum Cleaners, Retrieved 2022-7-15