MAIDIN BRITAIN
Dyson unveils the robotic household helpers developed in this country that it hopes will make it a leader in the field
REMEMBER when our vision of the future was a world full of flying cars and friendly humanoid robots?
Sadly, that technological utopia has not yet arrived. And neither, thankfully, has the bit when the robots rise and take control of everything.
Although, if Dyson has its way, the good bit of that future vision could come sooner rather than later.
This week, the fancy vacuum maker revealed its hitherto-secret plans to put robotics right at the heart of its business.
So far, 10 years of work have gone into the project.
The big reveal from Dyson was made at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Philadelphia by Dyson’s Chief Engineer Jake
Dyson, son of the company’s founder James. And there was good reason for that location – Dyson’s plans are of such enormous scale that they need to attract and employ another 700 specialist robotics engineers.
They’re already halfway through a recruitment drive that will eventually bring 2,000 new members of staff to the company, and while they’d rather keep their plans secret, they’ve had to reveal some details in a bid to attract the brightest and best to the project.
The whole robotic set-up is spread across four sites – three in the UK and one in Singapore, where Dyson has its global HQ.
The biggest UK base is at Hullavington Airfield in Wiltshire, where two giant hangars are home to a pair of divisions that Dyson is betting its future on. One is focused on wearables – that’s where the headphonescum-facemask the company revealed earlier this year came from.
The other warehouse is where the robots are taking shape.
In a video presentation to the conference, Dyson gave a somewhat limited guided tour of the facility that gave a glimpse into what kind of work goes on there.
We saw a robot picking up children’s toys from the floor and tidying them away into a box. There was a robot hand lifting crockery from a drying rack, and a large, complicated-looking device that turned out to be a vacuum cleaner that could tackle a living room chair.
The device, Dyson says, can accurately map the chair in 3D to make sure it reaches every nook and cranny.
Beyond that, there was much technical talk about how work was ongoing to marry the various technologies required – from both software to hardware – together into useful devices.
And by useful, it does seem they’re more focused on housework than anything more earthshattering.
These are not the first robots Dyson has worked on, of course. It’s been selling a robot vacuum cleaner for almost 20 years.
And one of the drawbacks to all robot vacuums on the market today is that they can’t make it up stairs.
Tackling this issue might well be high on the agenda for the team at Hullavington – a set of stairs are seen in the video in the robotics test area.
How long might it be before we see any of these robots on the market? There’s no clue yet, but Jake Dyson says the company is looking at this project “though a ten-year lens, and beyond”.
You can take a look at Dyson’s video about the robot project at dyson.co.uk
IKEA GOES MATTER-READY
Ikea has released details of a new home hub to control its smart devices… and it’s compatible with the new Matter standard.
It will replace the current Tradfri hub and will hit the market some time in the autumn, around the same time the Matter standard will launch.
Matter is a consortium of hardware and software makers, including Google, Amazon, Samsung, and Apple, seeking to redefine the standards by which smart home tech communicates so that, in theory, all smart home tech works together without the compatibility issues customers now face.
The new hub is called Dirigera and has been redesigned from the ground up to allow control of more kinds of devices than Tradfri.
No word yet on price, but at launch, Ikea will also release a completely now home control smartphone app.
THE £820 GUCCI SMART RING
The Oura is the leading healthtracking smart ring on the market at the moment. But that’s not good enough for the company that makes it – they want it to be the most stylish, too.
That’s why they’ve collaborated with Italian fashion house Gucci to create a special edition of the ring.
The Gucci Oura mimics the look of the standard Gucci Icon ring in black and gold, but contains all the smarts that comes with the standard Oura ring.
You’ll pay £820 for the privilege, though – a £200 mark-up on the Icon ring and around £500 more than you’d pay for a standard Oura.
PS VR2 GETS CLOSER
Sony has released more details of its plans around the launch of its next generation virtual reality headset for PlayStation.
PS VR2 will, Sony says, have at least 20 ‘major games’ available at launch… even though the company has not said when that launch will be.
Sony says there is considerable cash being spent, both with third-party developers and in-house, to make sure there will be a decent raft of titles to showcase the device at launch.
The VR2 will be a companion for the PS5, and we already know connection to the console will be a lot simpler than how the first version worked with the PS4, connecting via a single USB cable.
The headset is expected to be released next year.