This Robot Will Clean Your Windows Before Taking Over The World
This article is more than 2 years old
I don’t need an infomercial’s incessant problem-listing to know that cleaning windows can be a son of a bitch. Depending on the height and location, some windows are just begging to be left as grimy portals that are lucky to get a hose spray every now and again. I don’t understand who needs to see in or out of that part of the attic anyway.
Taking away the toil and sweat of what used to be normal window-washing is the Winbot 7, which will use its “Don’t Call It a Vertical Roomba” technology to wash your windows while you divert your attention to other things. (Like possibly waiting for the Winbot 7 to finish one window so you can manually lift it and place it on the next window.) The device sticks to the window using a dual-suction system while it maps its way between your window panes. The actual cleaning is accomplished with a wet pad wiping up the endless amount of fingerprints, while a squeegee pushes aside excess moisture so a cloth can wipe the glass dry, leaving it spotlessly clean.
It will be available this summer at a $300-$400 price tag, which is far outside of my range, since I’ve probably spent less than $20 in my life on window cleaning. It would also be completely impractical for the windows I have at my house, which all feature divided panes. But for someone with large picture windows, especially high-rise businesses, this would no doubt be a time-saver, and you might get a cool nickname like “Winbot 7 Operator,” which comes with its own cool sun visor.
The parent company, Ecovacs, also has its own self-monitoring floor vacuum, the Deebot, as well as a fancy air purifier, called the Atmobot. The most intriguing entry in the line-up is the camera and microphone-enabled Famibot, which is also an airpurifier, as well as a smoke detector, an entertainment hub that plays news and music, an infrared security system, and it has peripherals that allow certain appliances to be controlled from your cell phone. Now I wonder when they’ll be releasing the tinier robots that clean these robots, and then the even tinier robots that clean those robots, and so on.
