Photo/Text By Wu Qi

[Preface]]

The author is a designer and has had the honor to participate in the design and development of sweeping robot products. Recently, he happened to be doing a market research and related technology research on sweeping robots. I have been looking forward to this product of Stone Technology for a long time. I dare not say how professional it is, but at least it is from the perspective of a user or designer to interpret this product and strive for objective improvement.

[About Stone Technology About Sweeping Robot]]

Founded in July 2014, Stone Technology is a company specializing in the research and development and production of home intelligent cleaning robots and other cleaning appliances. In September 2014, Xiaomi received investment and became a Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise. Xiaomi's first generation of Mijia sweeping robot was developed by Stone Technology. The second generation can be said to be a comprehensive upgraded version of the first generation, which not only increases the floor mopping function, but also greatly improves the product performance. Of course, it is more expensive. Please compare it with a picture.

About the sweeping robot, here is a simple definition and introduction, after all, some friends may think: this pie-like thing, why not call it a sweeper and called a robot? In fact, it is very simple, nothing more than: this is an intelligent, with a certain degree of autonomy, used to solve the problem of household cleaning products. Think about it this way, he has a brain that can process information independently and act. It is not too much to say that it is a robot, but the IQ may not be so high......

In fact, the sweeper robot came out as early as 20 years ago, but with the continuous progress of science and technology and the continuous change of life style, this product has gradually entered the lives of more and more people, forming a very hot market.

[Unpacking Experience Product Design]]
Well, let's get back to the point and start the formal product experience session here.
As Xiaomi's ecological chain enterprise, this sweeping robot of Stone Technology, whether it is packaging or products, adheres to Xiaomi's consistent pragmatic design principles, simple and practical, neither fancy nor verbose. Packaging is the most common corrugated paper material. The process is simple and the cost is low. There is nothing to say. Interested students can poke the unpacking experience video above.
Talking about design, it is difficult to evaluate a design work rationally and objectively. Unlike a painting or a musical work, design is not only a subjective expression of a certain creator, but also a product of the combination of rationality and sensibility. Any design work presented has its context (context), technical resources, cost, process conditions, market and user needs, brand or business strategy... If you use one sentence to evaluate the stone sweeping robot S50, it is: this is a proper design. Well, no more, no less, just right. You should know that there are many dimensions to evaluate a design: shape, proportion, CMF, details, structure, assembly method... Just like a person's facial features, just glasses or nose good-looking, not good-looking, but suitable is different, although glasses are not so good-looking, but in the whole he is suitable, not abrupt, that is just right.
The author has always felt that doing design is like doing a multi-choice question, choosing the right proportion shape, matching the right CMF, supplemented by a little subtle details, to form a complete work. Things are always balanced. Everyone likes the cool appearance, but it must be something to sacrifice. Therefore, a restrained design is a good design, what to choose and what to abandon, what to do and what not to do, which requires the designer's experience and control.

The highlighted white panel is only decorated with silver-gray metallic paint, and the LOGO and key silk screen are printed with extremely fine lines, making the whole product look very delicate, but there is no surplus.

Inheriting the fine tradition of general elephant evaluation, the picture must be taken carefully ~ ~

The size of the keys, the overall layout, and the way of typing are also more sophisticated, concise and aesthetic. The stone sweeping robot is designed with three physical keys, namely, power key, partial cleaning key and recharge key. Compared with many sweeping robots equipped with only one power button in the world, three buttons are the most convenient and reasonable design method, which can not only save the inconvenience caused by using the remote control, but also meet the needs of most users.

The laser device is decorated with bright orange, which not only highlights the technical characteristics of the product, but also enriches the overall color matching. The blind holes in the air outlet are arranged in sequence, full of rhythm. Details design pursues practicality first, not so much attention, not so many rich changes, well "scientific and technological pragmatism" is absolutely right.

Removable dust box and bird knife are very convenient to disassemble and clean.

[Functional Experience]]

The stone sweeping robot is controlled based on Mijia APP. Since some millet products were used in the home before, it is very easy to get started with almost no difficulty. Simple connection can realize mobile phone control. The APP side can be said to have everything, which can be set up to allow the sweeping robot to independently control the sweeping and completely liberate the hands of lazy people. You can also use your mobile phone as a remote controller to control the activities of the sweeping robot wherever you go. At the same time, this sweeping robot is also equipped with a very humanized voice bag, mandarin, robot, cartoon children, adorable sister everything... there is actually a dialect version ha ha ha......
Compared with the previous millet sweeping robot, the stone sweeping robot has added a carpet pressurization mode, which can control the switch at the APP end, making it easier to clean the carpet. After actual measurement, it is found to be really useful. Turn off the carpet pressurization mode robot is easily entangled by the carpet, especially the wool connected to the edge of the carpet, but it is much better after opening.

After starting to use the sweeping robot, the happiest one was the two meows at home... I don't know what this is.

Because there are two meows in the house, the cat hair on the ground is usually very annoying. If you don't clean it for two or three days, it will become a group, which is difficult to clean. I have used a hand-held vacuum cleaner before, but before it is sucked in, cat hair will be blown all over the sky by the air outlet. After using the sweeping robot for a few days, the problem was completely solved, and even the areas under the cabinet that were not normally touched were sucked clean.

The biggest feature of this sweeping robot is the addition of wet dragging function. Personally, I think this should be a trend of continuous evolution and development of sweeping robots. The earliest sweeping robots, like IROBOT, Dyson's were dragged and swept separately. Dyson's had no mopping function at all. Although the problem of cleaning was well solved, it still could not completely solve the users' troubles without mopping.
After testing the wet drag function, I dare not say anything without using other products. Well, at least it is much cleaner than I did......

Look left, look right ~

The cat litter cleaning artifact, in a short time, the cat litter on the ground and in the corner was cleaned up. Compared with me, this shoveling officer, it is simply too professional!

After measuring the cleaning effect on the ground made of different materials, there is basically no big problem and it is clean ~

The cleaning function along the border is very meticulous.

Anti-fall cliff sensor, there is no need to worry about the robot falling downstairs.

[Product Function Comparison]]

In order to further understand the characteristics of the product, I have compared the performance of the stone sweeping robot S50 with the local treasure of a famous brand of sweeping robot in China.

The biggest difference between the two products lies in the navigation mapping system. The stone sweeping robot uses the mainstream laser planning and navigation system in the current market, while Dibao uses the newer V-SLAM visual navigation system. In contrast, laser navigation is a relatively mature technical solution at present, but visual navigation systems will have a bright future.
An inappropriate analogy is: like a dolphin, laser navigation is similar to a sonar system, which is more accurate; while visual navigation is its eyes, which can recognize everything that can be seen.

Dibao * * * * adopts the more advanced gyroscope planning technology of V-SLAM vision navigation system at present. The official retail price is 1899 yuan

[Measuring the Work of Two Machines at Home]]
Generally speaking, both machines have solved the problem of family cleaning well. However, the function of mopping the floor is obvious. The plant bionic water tank equipped with the stone sweeping robot has more uniform water seepage and better wet mopping effect. In contrast, the wet mopping effect of Dibao is not obvious, the water tank has uneven water seepage, some places are dry and some places are wet, and the cleaning effect is obviously much worse.
In addition, compared with the operability of the product, the stone sweeping robot is much easier to use. A certain brand APP had many problems when the mobile phone was connected to Dibao at the beginning. It took many times to connect to the mobile phone. After connecting, it told me that the APP should be updated. During the update period, Dibao cannot be used, and it must be charged more than 50% to update. This setting is really... How many functions does the stone sweeping robot, in contrast, the ease of use is much stronger.

Finally, with regard to the navigation mapping technology used by the two machines, it can be seen from the cleaning records in the screenshots above that the laser navigation technology used by the stone sweeping robot is more mature, and the objects in the room can be recognized immediately at the moment of work. The mapping is more accurate, the robot will not run and bump when working, and the planning is clear. In contrast, Dibao's performance is much worse. It took 25 minutes to roughly identify the situation in the room. The drawing effect is also relatively rough. It feels that most of it still depends on the traditional random collision type of the robot. The planning is not detailed enough, the robot's action route is not clear, and it does not give full play to the advantages of the visual navigation system.

[Measured Comparison Link]]

In order to clearly observe the cleaning effect of the two devices for different garbage, the author conducted a targeted test.

There is really no meaning of black so-and-so brand, but I have a good opinion......

In contrast, the design of the stone sweeping robot's unilateral brush will not blow the garbage away, and the cleaning effect is better. Although the coverage area of the two-sided brush is larger in the actual cleaning, it will inevitably bring about the problem of incomplete cleaning effect.,

Please stamp the above video for the complete test process.

[Summary]]

After layers of testing, the work of the stone sweeping robot is still quite good. The world's major events must be done in detail, and you can feel the painstaking efforts of the developers. Although the price of 2499 Ocean is a little more expensive than that of most domestic manufacturers, compared with IROBOT and Dyson, which sell for 6-7K, the stone sweeping robot with one drag and sweep is definitely a very cost-effective choice.

Finally, I cut a picture on the official website of Stone Technology and read it carefully. As a designer, I was still touched. After thinking about the short-lived companies in the current society, the pigs scrambling to chase the tuyere, and all kinds of chaos of plagiarism, there are really not many enterprises willing to do research and development in such a down-to-earth manner!