I took up Manufacturing Engineering and Management at De La Salle University and I was always fascinated with technology. Particularly how all things work together and the possibility of inventing something new that will help life become easier. As such back in college most of our thesis were about robots. This was back in 1995-1996.
Fast forward to today, the technology for robotics as grown by leaps and bounds and is entering each and every nook and cranny of our lives regardless of how mundane or dull that aspect is. The aspect of this article is about cleaning at home! Yes there are robots that clean homes and buildings i.e. floor, windows etc. I remember watching an Astroboy the movie and seeing animated window cleaners cleaning windows in a building.
10 Things to Take Into Consideration when Shopping for a Robot Vacuum Cleaner

2. Control - control of the robot vacuum would be great if it can be done remotely either via wifi, Bluetooth, voice control, via an app or other means.You should be able to provide orders for the robot to commence its work as well as change orders or stop all together. As with all remote technology is concerned if the robot is part of the internet of things being connected to wifi, manufacturers should have the proper safe guards in place to prevent hackers from taking control of the equipment.

4. Safety - given a location may have various levels the robot vacuum should be able to sense if it will be dropping of a cliff, bumping into something, sense objects etc. Would think it would have some defensive driving mechanism so as to avoid bumping and then resume the work where it left off. Objects of course to avoid could be mobile or immobile objects. Mobile objects could be tricky because you could have adults, children, pets, strollers, chairs, toys and a lot more. Depending on the time of the day say in an office building there could be a lot of people like during rush hour. Infrared sensors would think would play a key role in this aspect as well as some AI programming that car makers are using.

Someone actually made one! See the video below!
6. Climbing - wouldn't it be great if the robot vacuum can climb stairs or inclined surfaces? Well to some extent they can go on inclined surfaces. Wall-E though can go everywhere.There should be sufficient power and torque to get the whole robot up an incline if ever. Some models have sufficient power for such. Just check the specifications.
7. Battery life - since this robot is on it's own as long as you can program it well it better have long enough battery life unless it can charge it's self like Wall-E using solar panels! The challenge today is the size of batteries. But I must say batteries have been getting smaller and smaller as evidenced by those power banks that keep on increasing in amperage and the size of the power bank is getting smaller. There are even wireless charging platforms that can be used so would be good for these robot vacuums to get back to home base where there is a wireless charging pad. Wouldn't that be nifty? Some power banks already exist that does this.
Here's a video about the evolution of the battery

9. Warranty - as with any product it's good if the product comes with a warranty for a good length of time. Usually this length of time is 1 year. There are products that place tamper resistant stickers to tell you that if you open the product on your own the warranty is void. So please be wary of such. If in doubt always ask support! It's also good to ask for warranty where to send the product if it needs to be sent in and who shoulders the charges!

Example of a Robot Vacuum Cleaner
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