1993 – “HomeR” Vacuuming Robot – Frank Jenkins (American)

Extract from article by Tom Carroll, Servo Magazine, Nov 2006. The above picture shows a robot vacuum cleaner that was a work of art, though a bit tall to clean under most furniture. Frank Jenkins of the Robotics Society of California demonstrated his home vac for our group 15 years ago. At 23 inches high …

1991 – “Televac” Automatic Vacuum Cleaner – Andre and Bernard Jonas (French)

Robo-Vac: Televac, a robot vacuum cleaner that runs on a timer, rotates in six-degree increments as its flat-lying hose extends 18 feet under furniture. Obstacles are detected by a sensor on the nozzle. Televac is shown below with and without its cover. US Patent information: Automatic vacuum cleaner Publication number US5095577 A  Publication date Mar …

1997 – Robotic Vacuum Cleaners from “The Fifth Element” – (American)

Christopher Noessel from scifiinterfaces.wordpress.com has already done such a great job in describing the robot vacuum cleaner from the 1997 movie "The Fifth Element" that I have re-blogged his post here: Floor sweeping robots –  22 Apr 2013 by Christopher Noessel       To illustrate his capitalist ideology, (a high-tech version of the parable of …