Video: First stair-climbing robo-vacuum stretches its folding legs

Migo Robotics' Ascender is the world's first stair-climbing robotic vacuum cleaner and floor mop. People certainly seem to like the idea, as its just-launched Kickstarter campaign has already racked up almost $2 million in pledges.

First of all, yes, the Ascender does also work like a regular robo-cleaner on flat surfaces.

After creating a map of the home on its first use – or having one manually programmed into it – it subsequently follows that map as it makes its rounds, hitting up the different rooms in the most efficient order possible.

As it does so, it tracks its whereabouts and avoids obstacles via an HD camera, LiDAR module, and six Time-of-Flight sensors. All of these tools provide data to an integrated 5-teraFLOP AI computing engine.

The Ascender is also able to detect the difference between carpets and hard floors, automatically vacuuming the former and mopping the latter. It delivers 9,700 pascals of suction when vacuuming, and 17 Newtons of pressure when mopping.

Sucked-up dirt along with both clean and dirty mopping water are stored in onboard compartments. When the Ascender automatically returns to its base station, the dirt and used water are emptied, and the clean water reservoir is topped up. The station's dirt bag should be good for about 60 days before needing to be replaced, while its clean and used water tanks ought to be good for about 30 days.

And then there's the stair-climbing.

The Ascender automatically detects when it's at the top or bottom of a set of stairs, then goes about ascending or descending them as necessary. It climbs stairs by raising its main body relative to its two "outrigger" wheel units on either side, sliding that body forward so it sits flat on the tread of the next step up, then swinging first one then the other wheel unit up to join the body.

The robot vacuums or mops the tread of each step, utilizing its four omnidirectional wheels to move laterally (from side to side) without having to turn around. Its main cleaning brush pivots 90 degrees during these lateral movements, so it stays facing in the direction of travel.

According to Migo, one charge of the Ascender's 12000-mAh lithium battery should be good for cleaning a total area of about 5,380 sq ft (500 sq m). The robot will return to its charger-equipped base station if the battery gets low in the middle of its rounds, then pick up where it left off when the battery has been recharged.

An accompanying iOS/Android app allows users to set cleaning schedules, declare certain rooms off-limits, or even remotely operate the robot via onscreen joystick controls (if they feel like goofing around a bit).

Assuming the Migo Ascender reaches production, a pledge of US$849 will get you one with a base station. The planned retail price is $1,499.

You can see it in stair-climbing action, in the video below.

Sources: Kickstarter, Migo Robotics