When you’re forced to stay and work from home, you start noticing that your house isn’t as clean as you thought. You also realize that you generate more dirt and debris simply from being in the home All. The. Time.
你不得不留下来，在家工作W¯¯母鸡，你开始注意到你的房子不干净，你想。 您还意识到，仅仅在家中就产生了更多的灰尘和碎屑。 的。 时间。
It’s probably why while some business sectors like travel and brick and mortar retail are contracting, the three-decade-old robot vacuum company iRobot is watching its revenue rise.
这可能是为什么在旅游和实体零售等某些业务领域萎缩的同时，成立了三十年的机器人吸尘器公司iRobot却在关注其收入的增长。
“Interest in things like robots than can really help has grown rapidly,” iRobot CEO Colin Angle told me earlier this month. A few years ago, roughly 20% of the robots iRobot sold were considered “Premium” (over $500). This year, the percentage is over 60%.
iRobot首席执行官Colin Angle在本月早些时候告诉我：“对机器人之类的东西的兴趣远远超出了他们的实际需求。” 几年前，iRobot售出的机器人中大约有20％被认为是“ Premium”(超过500美元)。 今年，这一比例超过了60％。
Now, iRobot is preparing to capitalize on that need with a project that actually predates the Pandemic.
现在，iRobot正在准备通过一个实际上早于大流行的项目来利用这种需求。
On Tuesday, iRobot unveiled iRobot Genius Home Intelligence, a radical reinvention of its operating software and consumer app that reimagines the where, when, and how iRobot’s Roombas and robot mops operate, navigate, and clean.
周二，iRobot推出了iRobot Genius Home Intelligence，这是对其操作软件和消费者应用程序的彻底改造，重新构想了iRobot的Roombas和机器人拖把在何处，何时以及如何进行操作，导航和清洁。
The Genius system makes significant changes to three major areas of Roomba cleaning technology: Navigation, Scheduling, and Personalization.
Genius系统对Roomba清洁技术的三个主要领域进行了重大更改：导航，计划和个性化。
安全空间 (Safe spaces)
On the navigation front, Roombas (at least those with VSLAM and camera technology) will gain the ability to generate Automatic Precision Zones. It was already possible for iRobot owners to create their own bounding boxes, but, according to Angle, few did it because “it required a lot of dedication on the part of the user.” Put more simply, your Roomba will finally see a table as a table. Once it identifies the table, it’ll offer you the option of keeping and naming that zone (“Dining Room Table”). The Roomba stores the area and images locally and will clean around and under the table (or couch, or comfy chair) appropriately. It will still see the chairs around the table, which get moved more often, as “hazards.”
在导航方面，Roombas(至少具有VSLAM和摄像头技术的Roombas)将具有生成“自动精确区域”的功能。 iRobot所有者已经可以创建自己的边界框，但是据Angle称，这样做很少，因为“这需要用户投入大量精力”。 简而言之，您的Roomba最终会看到一张桌子。 一旦确定了桌子，它将为您提供保留和命名该区域的选项(“餐厅桌子”)。 Roomba将区域和图像存储在本地，并将适当清洁桌子(或沙发或舒适的椅子)周围和下方。 它仍将桌子周围的椅子视为“危险”，而这些椅子经常移动。
“It’s not magic, but the experience about how it’s supposed to work is the important part,” Angle told me.
Angle告诉我：“这不是魔术，但是有关其工作原理的经验是重要的一部分。”
When Roomba cleans on a room based on a customer-defined schedule, it often gets cancelled mid-job because the Roomba’s presence was annoying somebody. Customers complained to iRobot: “I feel like I’m living around the robot’s schedule. It should be living around my schedule.”
当Roomba根据客户定义的时间表对房间进行打扫时，由于Roomba的出现令人讨厌，所以它通常会在工作中被取消。 客户向iRobot抱怨：“我感觉自己正在按照机器人的时间表工作。 它应该符合我的时间表。”
The Genius system makes iRobot’s cleaning bots smarter about when they clean. Updated algorithms will analyze when you’re not there, often thanks to connections to other smart objects in the home like an alarm system or smart lock. It can even adjust its schedule based on when the lights are on. A Roomba is just as happy cleaning in the dark.
Genius系统使iRobot的清洁机器人在清洁时更加智能。 更新的算法将在您不在时进行分析，这通常要归功于与警报系统或智能锁等家庭中其他智能对象的连接。 它甚至可以根据灯的开启时间调整时间表。 Roomba在黑暗中清洁同样快乐。
Updated Roombas will also be able to remember when you ask it to clean a room and if it detects a pattern, it can recommend that as a new schedule.
更新的Roombas还可以记住您要求它打扫房间的时间，并且如果它检测到某种模式，可以建议将其作为新的时间表。
机器人声音 (Robot voice)
iRobot is also working on deeper integration with the digital voice assistants Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, to pair them with natural language requests and routines. If there are a handful of cleaning tasks, like a Roomba sweeping the floor and a iRobot Braava Jet mopping up after dinner, the new app can help you instantly generate a routine called “After Dinner”, which you can then request by saying, for instance, “Okay Google, tell Roomba ‘After Dinner.’”
iRobot还致力于与数字语音助手Amazon Alexa和Google Assistant进行更深入的集成，以将它们与自然语言请求和例程配对。 如果有少量清洁任务，例如Roomba扫地和晚餐后用iRobot Braava Jet擦拭，则新应用程序可以帮助您立即生成一个名为“ After Dinner”的例程，然后您可以通过以下方式请求该例程：例如，“好吧，谷歌，告诉Roomba'晚餐后'。”
“We’ve been Amazon and Google’s most demanding customer,” claimed Angle and that they’ve told those companies that iRobot needs “more precision with how to use voice to communicate with our robot”
安格尔表示：“我们一直是亚马逊和谷歌最苛刻的客户，他们告诉那些公司，iRobot需要“在使用语音与我们的机器人进行通信方面需要更高的精确度”
The update will also make iRobot robots more situationally aware. In high-pollen season, for instance, your updated Roomba might suggest additional cleanings to keep the pollen levels down in your home.
该更新还将使iRobot机器人更切合实际。 例如，在花粉旺季，更新后的Roomba可能会建议您进行其他清洁工作，以保持家中花粉水平的降低。
走出红色区域 (Out of the Red Zone)
Roomba owners may be especially excited about the introduction of Red Zones. “Every house has evil Roomba places,” Angle told me. These include a mess of electric cords under a desk that tangles up the cleaning bot, or an oddly shaped table that lets the Roomba roll in but not out.
Roomba所有者可能对引入红色区域感到特别兴奋。 “每个房子都有邪恶的Roomba地方，”安格尔告诉我。 这些杂物包括缠在清洁机器人上的桌子下面的一堆电线，或使Roomba滚入但不滚出的形状怪异的桌子。
Roomba will now remember these traumas and, after a couple of times, ask you if you want it to avoid those “Red Zones” in the future or if you now plan to clean them up so it can navigate them successfully.
Roomba现在会记住这些创伤，并在几次后询问您是否希望将来避免这些“红色区域”，或者您现在是否打算对其进行清理以便成功地进行导航。
Virtually all of iRobot’s Wi-Fi connected robots will get the free software update, though how they interpret it will depend in their vision and cleaning capabilities.
几乎所有iRobot的Wi-Fi连接机器人都将获得免费软件更新，尽管他们如何解释它取决于视觉和清洁功能。
The App will undergo a significant change, including the removal of the big Clean button on the home screen in favor of a Favorites list that defaults to “Clean Everywhere.” Angle insists that iRobot worked to make this a gentle transition and that the app will ultimately extend the robots capabilities while reassuring you that you won’t be confused.
该应用程序将发生重大变化，包括删除主屏幕上的大“清洁”按钮，以使用默认为“到处清洁”的“收藏夹”列表。 Angle坚持认为iRobot致力于使这一过渡变得温和，并且该应用程序最终将扩展机器人功能，同时让您放心，您不会感到困惑。
纠结了 (Tangled up)
Because of travel restrictions, iRobot, which is also working on a major hardware update, hasn’t sent a single U.S.-based engineer to China since February. “It’s put a huge burden on our China engineering team,” said Angle.
由于旅行限制，iRobot也在进行主要的硬件更新，自2月份以来，还没有派遣任何美国驻华工程师到中国。 安格尔说：“这给我们的中国工程团队带来了沉重负担。”
At the same time, iRobot has been caught up in the Trump Administration’s raging trade war with China. The company got an exemption from paying tariffs on its products, the majority of which are built in China, and even got it extending through the end of the year.
同时，iRobot已陷入特朗普政府与中国之间激烈的贸易战。 该公司免征其产品的关税，其中大部分产品在中国制造，甚至可以延至年底。
“We’ve been told in no uncertain terms that [the exemption] is not going to extend into 2021,” explained Angle. As a result, iRobot is moving its manufacturing to Malaysia and, by the end of 2021, it will have the ability to ship fully made products from Malaysia to the U.S.
安格尔解释说：“毫无疑问，我们被告知豁免将不会延续到2021年。” 因此，iRobot的制造业务已转移到马来西亚，到2021年底，它将有能力将马来西亚生产的完整产品运送到美国。
In the meantime, this major software update will roll out this month followed by another update in a few months and Genius 2.0 in by next year.
同时，此主要软件更新将在本月推出，然后在几个月内进行另一次更新，在明年之前进行Genius 2.0。
For years, Angle reminded me, he’s told me that the perfect Roomba is the Roomba you never see, never touch. “But that’s not right. The perfect robot is a trusted partner of the owner…. The idea that robot intelligence = autonomous is not really true. We need collaborative intelligence.” And with this Genius update, Angle and iRobot aim to provide exactly that.
多年以来，安格尔提醒我，他一直告诉我，完美的Roomba是您从未见过，从未碰过的Roomba。 “但这是不对的。 完美的机器人是拥有者值得信赖的合作伙伴……。 机器人智能=自主的想法并不是真的。 我们需要协作情报。” 借助此Genius更新，Angle和iRobot旨在提供这一点。
翻译自: https://medium.com/swlh/irobot-is-reshaping-its-robotic-intelligence-65d6a06cd955
123
被折叠的 条评论
为什么被折叠?
到【灌水乐园】发言
