The Roomba may autonomously roam our homes, but now a robot cleaner known as Narwal can both vacuum and mop our floors. It can even refill its water tank when it has finished cleaning.
The self-maintenance feature and cleaning application is certainly to appeal to a large audience. The device has already raised 20 times its goal on Kickstarter and is still going.
The 1800Pa motor enables the Narwal to suck up mass amounts of dust or dirt. But its key feature, according to the creators, is its mopping abilities. The Narwal can clean three times as efficiently as other robotic mops, and contains two rounded triangle spin mops to do our mopping.
The five-liter tank holds water that can be changed by the bot itself. It’ll be a while before a water change occurs since the Narwal can clean up to 2,150 square feet before it needs a water refill. It also won’t matter whether you have vinyl, tile, hardwood, or laminate, it can clean and wash all types of floors.
Additionally, it routes optimized pathways using LiDAR technology, and the more cleaning it does, the smarter it gets. A route is plotted across both hardwood floors and carpets, and as the robot navigates this route more frequently, it gets smarter on where and when it should go.
The Narwal can also be controlled via an app on smartphones, which allows users to check and schedule cleaning routines and set “no-go” areas in specific rooms.
Users still have to apply some work to this robot, though. It can’t vacuum and mop at the same time, so users need to manually swap the modules over each time, and you’ll need to empty out the dirt and dust that’s collected.
Currently, there’s no Google Assistant or Amazon Alex support, so users might not be able to integrate this device into their smart home as easily as other robotic vacuums.
The bot will be selling for $799 and is estimated to start shipping in September if all goes to plan.