The design of the Roomba 980 is not dissimilar to other Roomba. Instead of a centrally located “CLEAN” button, the Roomba 900 Series does shift that button up slightly in order to make room for the onboard camera, a critical component to the advanced navigation in this model. While they can’t empty their own dust bin into the trash can, the more advanced models that come out, continue to have more and more impressive features. It said it plans to recruit a further 700 robotics engineers in fields such as computer vision, machine learning, sensors and mechatronics over the next five years. Along with the Auto function, you can manually add boundaries yourself via the app—once a room has been mapped. The mapping technology can store multiple maps, meaning you can set it down in your bedroom or kitchen, select the room and let it get to work.
They all have drop sensors to prevent them falling down the stairs. The underside reveals a removable and replaceable front brush system and two likely robust and powerful blue wheels. On the right we see the text DUST ANALYTICS, and on the right we see SIDE ACTUATOR. At the back in the removable dust bin we see RADIAL CYCLONE TECHNOLOGY. Whether it’s worth that much money to pick up a 360 Eye will depend on your commitment to achieving a clean house without being too personally involved in the process. I actually ultimately stopped using my Roomba, which cost considerably less, because it wasn’t really effective enough to deal with the trade-offs.
But if you want any sort of customization or control, you’ll want to pair it with your phone through the Dyson Link app. After all, Dyson had hoped to launch its first robotic vacuum back in 2001, the DC06, but it was famously pulled by James Dyson from the production line, who believed it was still too heavy and slow. While the app can show you virtually all of the Dyson 360 Eye’s activity, the robot itself will not remember the layout of a room it has previously cleaned. This is on purpose because people move chairs and other furniture with some regularity.
At the heart, it uses S.L.A.M. that helps stitch together a constant 360 degree view of the area it’s cleaning. A top mounted camera helps it “remember” irobot vacuum cleaner areas it has cleaned and areas it has not. Basically, the 360 Eye delivers just about everything you want from a high-end robot vacuum.
You can even set the vacuum going with a single button press, all from your phone. The app is simple to use, and the features are easy to navigate. You can schedule cleaning across a week, but my favorite feature is the Activity tab. Here, the app generates metrics based on recent cleaning cycles.
What makes the Dyson 360 Heurist different from other robot vacuums? Dyson engineers developed the 360 Heurist with heuristic – or learning – abilities. This means based upon previous cleaning sessions the vacuum will continue to better understand the layout of the room and map obstacles in the home allowing for more intelligent and efficient cleans in the future. While the vacuum is running it uses a top-mounted fish eye camera lens to create a 360˚ panoramic view and incorporates SLAM technology to have a continuous view of where it’s been and where it still needs to clean. When encountering dark or dimly lit areas during evenings, night time, or under furniture, a LED light illuminates the camera to ensure proper mapping and cleaning is still achieved. Not to mention that the Dyson 360 Heurist has 20% more suction than previous Dyson robot vacuums.
For reasons that are still unknown, it kept skipping my master bedroom; only after I picked up the robot and started it up in there did it add the bedroom to its map. Your robot senses low light areas using the camera and uses its ring of LED lights to selectively illuminate those areas, helping it to navigate. Connect to the Dyson Link app to unlock intelligent features.