Pain in the glass? Windoro bot does your windows
Roomba and other robots can clean your floors. But what about those windows? South Korea's Windoro takes up the challenge.
I've messed around with several household robots that clean floors, but I can't believe it's 2010 and I'm still manually washing my windows. I know I'll have to wait until 2020 for bionic eyesight, and a bit longer for immortality, but come on. Windows? By hand?
South Korea's Pohang Institute of Intelligent Robotics (PIRO) has given me reason to hope that one day I'll be freed from wiping away grime myself. It has developed a window-washer robot called Windoro that can do the job itself, increasing my leisure time.
Windoro resembles square floor-cleaning robots like Mint, but works vertically instead of horizontally. It consists of two parts, held together by neodymium magnets, that simultaneously clean both sides of a window pane.
As seen in the vid below from IFA Berlin 2010, Windoro uses water, detergent, and rotating pads to clean the glass while navigating with obstacle sensors (see more pics here). It apparently works on windows up to about 1 inch thick.
The device seems very noisy, and I can only imagine that it would be a hassle to attach to the outer window, whether you're in a house or a high-rise, though it might be ideal for interior glass walls and doors. I doubt this would take the bother out of window washing to any great extent. And who's to blame if it breaks the glass?
There's no word on price yet, but PIRO wants to market Windoro early next year through major Korean electronics retailers as well as Germany's HSE24 shopping network.