Robot Reviews

iRobot's Roomba now has two contenders to its throne.

Earlier, we featured the Neato XV-11, a new robotic vacuum cleaner that looks bent on getting a slice of the Roomba's lion's share of the market. Now, we announce yet another robot that's going to make the folks at iRobot start rethinking marketing strategies - the LG Roboking. 

Like the XV-11, the Roboking is capitalizing on the Roomba's seemingly erratic navigation system. However, unlike Neato which opted to use lasers, LG chose to employ cameras for navigation. Actually, LG's Roboking has twin cameras to help it move around.

While the Neato XV11 is packed with a more powerful but noticeably noisy vacuum, the LG engineers focused on building a more quite machine, chipping off 13 dB from the noise level of its predecessor. They also managed to make the new Roboking shorter in height than its predecessor. The shorter the vacuum cleaner, the better is its capability to maneuver underneath furniture and suck the dust there. 

The Roboking runs on Lithium Polymer batteries, making it the greenest robot among the three (including the Roomba). The use of Lithium batteries also has the benefit of being able to operate longer.

It's going to be interesting to see which of these two robots can pose a serious threat to the Roomba come 2010.