Tomy Vacuuming Dustbot Had Edge Sensors In 1985

Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 21 of January , 2009 at 10:10 am

It may have been a full 25 years after RCA first imagined the Roomba, but the Tomy Dustbot, which you could buy in 1985, does just about everything our favorite household vacuuming robot does. Well, mostly.

Kind of.

Okay, not really, but it does vacuum things, and it does have edge sensors to keep it from throwing itself down stairs in a desperate bid for your attention, something that is thoughtfully included in Roombas. The Dustbot does best the Roomba in one department, I would argue: personality. As Dustbot vacuums, his eyes flash, and he pretends to sweep things with his cute little broom and dustpan. Aww!

[ The Old Robots ] VIA [ Robots-Dreams ]

Leave a comment

Category: Consumer, Toys

• Add this post to
• Del.icio.us -
• Digg

No comments yet.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>