The pace of work is getting faster and faster, and many white-collar workers have entrusted the household chores of sweeping the floor to robots. According to the 2021 White Paper on the Development of the Sweeping Robot Market, China has become the world’s largest market for sweeping robots. Data shows that similar ‘lazy economy’ has a market size of about 100 billion yuan in China, and Ningbo Huabao Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. is targeting this’ blue ocean ‘. One of the reasons for being popular is not being smart enough. For example, when sweeping the floor, one often gets stuck in a corner and cannot get out, or it may not be clean enough.
Huabao is very clear that the pain point is business opportunities. Our home environment is usually quite complex, and when cleaning, we may encounter carpets, table legs, cabinets, steps, etc. The tiles and floors may have different lighting colors. Robots need to learn to distinguish scenes and make adjustments according to different situations, “said Yi Tongquan, the head of Huabao research and development. To this end, Huabao has invested a lot of effort in improving and upgrading sensors and chips, and enhancing the visual recognition system of the sweeping robot.
Huabao has hired engineers from domestic and foreign universities and established a research and development team of over 60 people. In just a few years, it has achieved intensive technological updates. At the enterprise testing center, various sweeping robots have been undergoing various tests in terms of corner dust removal, cleaning noise, coverage rate, etc., with no less than a hundred experiments per day. Our sensors have evolved from initial collision triggering and infrared sensing to laser, visual, and other positioning. The intelligent chips and corresponding logic algorithms of robots are also constantly iteratively upgrading, making their ‘vision’ better and their brains smarter, “said Yi Tongquan. Huabao has owned over 50 national patents, filling multiple industry gaps.
Dust removal rate and coverage rate are two important indicators for testing the “intelligence” of sweeping robots in the industry. For the brain of a sweeping robot, it is crucial to figure out questions such as “where does it need to be cleaned? How can it bypass furniture? How can it be considered clean. The latest generation of laser sweeping robots developed by enterprises can quickly locate and construct a house map through laser ranging, understand key areas that need to be cleaned, and use different methods to treat surfaces of different materials. When encountering dirty areas, they use a rolling brush to rotate and gather dust, enhance suction, and ensure that the ground is clean.
As of now, the cleaning coverage rate of the sweeping robots developed and produced by Huabao has reached over 80%, and the dust removal rate on hard floors can reach over 90%, all of which are among the first tier in the industry. The annual sales of this type of product have exceeded 1 million units, mainly exported to the European and American markets.
Huabao is constantly upgrading its products according to user needs. What we are currently developing is a garbage collection device, which automatically collects garbage into the recycling bin every time the robot finishes cleaning, solving the problem.The frequent cleaning of robot dust collection boxes by users has further liberated their hands Yi Tong Quan said. Not only that, Huabao will continue to improve its information collection technology and artificial intelligence technology, allowing sweeping robots to fully recognize the physical characteristics of each cleaning object, adding more intelligent experiences to family life.
(Source: Ninghai County Science and Technology Bureau)