Roboking is an automated robotic vacuum cleaner produced by LG

LG

LG may refer to:*LG Corp., a South Korean electronics and petrochemicals conglomerate*LG Electronics, an affiliate of the South Korean LG Group which produces electronic products* Lawrence Graham, a London headquartered firm of business lawyers...

. The first version of the Roboking was launched during 2001. It is also sold as Hom-Bot. As of 2011, it is a quietest vacuum cleaner robot on the market, producing 48 dB.

Operation

The Roboking navigates by performing SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) to build a map of its environment using ceiling images, while tracking its incremental movement with a downward-facing camera (like an optical mouse). A combination of ultrasound and infrared helps minimize collisions in dynamic environments and optimizes performance by planning the most efficient route. LG claims that these sensors are more effective than the more conventional options of bumpers or light sensors. During homing, the robot goes directly to the remembered location of the charging station rather than looking for it with the help of sensors. Remembered path also helps it to clean multiple rooms.

Like most of other cleaning robots, Roboking is capable of independent docking with its charging station and of scheduled cleaning that starts after the specified number of hours. It cannot be programmed to clean periodically without user interaction and must be serviced after clenup to empty the dust bin. Remote control provides commands for cleanup, homing, steering and timer setup.

It is reported that the lack of bumper sensors causes the Roboking to push up against obstacles without realizing it, possibly moving them. "This pushing against objects is the single biggest issue with this product.". However 2011 year model has ultrasonic sensors to slow down and turns back if it cannot pass the obstacle.. The device is also both advertised and described in reviews as comparatively silent.

Technical details

The 2011 year model contains 22 sensors attached on 32 bit microprocessor. The device runs Linux kernel

Linux kernel

The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software....

 2.6 and internally uses Bash

Bash

Bash is a Unix shell written by Brian Fox for the GNU Project as a free software replacement for the Bourne shell . Released in 1989, it has been distributed widely as the shell for the GNU operating system and as the default shell on Linux, Mac OS X and Darwin...

, BusyBox

BusyBox

BusyBox provides several stripped-down Unix tools in a single executable. It runs in a variety of POSIX environments such as Linux, Android, FreeBSD and others, such as proprietary kernels, although many of the tools it provides are designed to work with interfaces provided by the Linux kernel. It...

, U-boot

U-boot

U-boot can refer to:* U-boats, military submarines operated by Germany during World War I and World War II* Das U-Boot, also known simply as U-Boot, a computer software which serves as a bootstrap loader in many embedded systems....

, glibc and OpenSSL

OpenSSL

OpenSSL is an open source implementation of the SSL and TLS protocols. The core library implements the basic cryptographic functions and provides various utility functions...

. Source code, where required by the licenses, is available from the address, included in the manual. 1900 mAh Lithium-ion polymer battery is sufficient for 75 minutes of cleaning. The cleaning mechanism is relatively well enclosed and the dust bin is fully closed when removed, resulting cleaner and less maintenance.

Cleaning Modes

The device offers several cleaning modes. During the spot cleaning the robot circles around small, highly contaminated area. During Zig Zag cleaning, it attempts to cover all space in long "wall to wall" sections, resulting in faster but possibly less accurate cleaning. During Cell by Cell (or spatial extension) cleaning it divides the bigger area into cells and cleans each cell separately, only moving to the next cell after the current one is complete. It can also be directly steered with remote control.

Real time image streaming

The 2011 year model VR6180VMNC has the third camera and can stream live images through Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...

.. Wi-Fi can also be used to control the cleaner from PC or smartphone. This robot also understands voice commands.