Odor-Destroying Robots Solve Problems You Didn't Know You Had

Autonomous stink-seeking robots are ready to come to your rescue

2 min read

Erico Guizzo is IEEE Spectrum's Digital Innovation Director.

Odor-Destroying Robots Solve Problems You Didn't Know You Had

You know what's missing in your life? Yes, that's right, a robot that wanders around your house seeking out bad smells and neutralizing them. Obviously there's a huge market for these things, because we saw not one but two of them at the Consumer Electronics Show last week.

First up is Moneual's Rydis H800 [photo above], a rather gigantic mobile air purifier. Inside are six (yes, six!) air purification systems, including a washable pre-filter, a functional filter, a HEPA filter, an activated carbon filter, a semi-ULPA filter, and an impregnated activated carbon filter. The robot can run for 4 hours on a charge, autonomously navigating around with what looks to be a suite of ultrasonic sensors, or you can kick it up to TURBO MODE, which we don't know what it will do except that it halves the battery life. Our best guess: It deploys a jetpack and flies around to get all those nasty smells that hide up near the ceiling.

Now, if you really are concerned with all those nasty smells that hide up near the ceiling, look no further than the Ecovacs A330. It has a "unique HACM chemically absorbing system" that "breaks down toxic gasses such as formaldehyde." Which is great if, you know, you've got a whole bunch of formaldehyde floating around. The robot can extend upwards by a foot or so (about 30 cm), which I guess must help it reach higher smells. Or something.

Neither of these robots have pricing or availability information attached to them, but you can bet that you'll have a hard time justifying what's likely to be an absurdly high cost. Unless, of course, you're someone who really does need a robot like this, in which case "absurdly high" is the same as "completely reasonable" and well worth it.

[ Moneual ]

[ Ecovacs ]

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