Revolutionizing Home Cleaning with Matic: The Design

By Lexie Ma

While there are over 250 self-driving car startups and numerous companies solving industrial robotics challenges, very few are focusing on bringing advanced technology into our homes. On average, a household of two spends 30 hours a week on home chores, and a family of four spends over 45 hours.

The introduction of robot vacuums in the early 2000s marked a significant milestone in home cleaning technology. However, the industry has seen few substantial advancements since then. Early designs were plagued with frustrating issues:

They often got stuck, requiring constant human intervention to pick them up and set them back on track. They frequently failed to identify different floor types and clean efficiently, leaving dirt behind and necessitating manual follow-up cleaning. They were noisy, emitted unpleasant odors, and often bumped into and potentially damaged valuables like paintings, vases, and guitars. They struggled with larger spaces, circled the same spot endlessly, and sometimes even dragged dirt around, making the mess worse. Many ended up as expensive dust collectors, sitting unused on shelves.

We hear you. Our founding team delved into indoor robotics after recognizing that the field lacked 3D maps for precise navigation. We concluded that indoor robots need on-device mapping capabilities to address privacy, latency, and changing indoor environments. This approach leveraged the growing power of edge devices (in terms of computes) and self-supervised learning methods. Just as autonomous vehicles rely on GPS and Google Street View Maps to navigate, fully autonomous indoor robots need a precise understanding of their location on high-fidelity, street view-like 3D maps of the constantly changing indoor world. However, this is a key missing piece for indoor robotics. Simultaneous Localization and Mapping technology (SLAM) and 3D perception enable robots to expertly navigate and build consistent maps, but precise implementations were lacking — until now.

This is where Matic comes in — our revolutionary solution to modern cleaning challenges, completely redesigned, reinvented, and reengineered. Matic is a smart, privacy-focused, AI-led floor-cleaning robot designed with busy families in mind. It utilizes computer vision technology just using RGB (red, green, and blue) cameras, similar to Tesla, to map and navigate homes in 3D, recognizing different home environments. All processing and intelligence occur on the device to ensure user data remains within customer’s homes. Matic can switch between vacuuming and mopping while in motion, based on what it observes, without the need to change out parts or user intervention. At ~55dB, Matic is quieter than human conversation, and unequivocally the quietest robot vacuum on the market. Our solution is crafted to be fully autonomous, allowing you to save time and energy: no babysitting, rescuing it, or worrying that it will create a bigger mess and break things.

We will delve into some of these features in detail.

Redefined mobility and Cutting-edge Obstacle Avoidance for Robot Floor Cleaners

The first thing you’ll notice about Matic is its friendly, aesthetic, and approachable design that complements your home decor. Unlike traditional vacuums with bulky docks and unpredictable movements that may frighten children and pets, Matic seamlessly blends into any home. With its higher vantage point, Matic offers significantly improved visibility for precise cleaning with its five on-device RGB cameras. In contrast to many other home robots that rely on lidar and proximity sensors — often bumping into kids’ toys or chewing wires — Matic uses simple yet powerful RGB cameras that mimic human vision, enabling intelligent decision-making to efficiently handle complex cleaning tasks. 

Additionally, these RGB cameras have near-infrared (IR) capabilities, allowing Matic to see in the dark and operate in pitch-black conditions without disturbing your family at night. This means you can schedule night cleans and wake up to a spotless home, enjoying the convenience of efficient, autonomous cleaning while you sleep.

Another key distinguisher between Matic and disc-shaped robot vacuums is memory. If you pick up a disc robot 15 minutes into its cleaning cycle, put it back on the dock, and ask it to clean again, it will clean the same area again for another 15 minutes because it cannot remember what it has already cleaned. These robots lack the cognitive capabilities to adapt and learn, resulting in inefficient cleaning.

Our engineering team, composed of experienced computer vision veterans, has created a superior user experience. Powered by the Nvidia Jetson Orin chip, Matic is at the forefront of automation and AI robotics technology. We have developed the world’s most precise simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system, enabling Matic to create a detailed real-time Google Street View-like 3D map of your home for efficient autonomous navigation and cleaning. This technology allows Matic to understand where, when, and what needs to be cleaned and prioritize tasks accordingly. It can identify and avoid valuables such as charging cords, shoe-laces or more, while distinguishing between different types of flooring and messes without getting stuck or lost. Matic can plan optimal cleaning routes, and adapt to changing environments without human intervention, understanding the home layout, valuables, and specific areas cleaned — eliminating the need for repetitive manual control. Over time, Matic keeps learning, recognizing patterns, preferences, and adapting to each family’s needs.

More importantly, we believe your data should stay within your home. Matic’s intelligence is localized on the device, ensuring that no user data is ever sent to the cloud for processing. That means no user information is ever sold, shared, or even collected in the first place.

Navigating Any Surface with Ease 

Today’s homes have evolved, with hard floors becoming the norm, accompanied by thick pile rugs, mats, and a plethora of wires and cords. Matic’s expertly-designed wheels allow it to traverse various surfaces — from carpets and rugs to hardwood floors and playmats, and even uneven tiles. It can cross thresholds and obstacles up to 1 inches tall, including wires, without getting tangled or stuck. Thanks to its square shape and edge cleaning brush, even debris in corners and crevices is effortlessly swept away.

Matic excels in reaching difficult-to-clean areas, such as the toe-kicks found beneath cabinets. Its cleaning head, measuring 3.1 inch tall, 9.8 inch wide and 4.1 inch deep, fits snugly into these spaces, ensuring thorough cleaning even in often-overlooked areas. 

Vacuuming and Mopping, All in One

Matic is the world’s quietest robot floor cleaner, capable of automatically vacuuming and mopping all kinds of surfaces without supervision. Its flexible cleaning head adjusts height, angle, brush roll speed, and suction power for optimal cleaning on any floor type. Our first-of-its-kind tangle-free vacuum roll effectively removes dirt and debris without jamming or trapping hair, pet dander, or dust.

Matic features a microfiber rolling mop that tackles sticky stains and dissolves dirt and grime while continuously self-cleaning. The wringer on the mop roll squeezes out dirty water, enabling Matic to self-clean while mopping, all without user intervention.

Matic's taller structure accommodates a larger battery and features a water reservoir for mopping and a disposable HEPA bag equipped with charcoal for odorless operations and diaper salts to turn water into gel to accumulate both wet and dry mess in the same bag. This system can last for weeks with daily vacuuming without needing replacement, eliminating the unpleasant task of dealing with soiled pads or filters.

At Matic, we are on a mission to save time and energy with remarkably smart, elegant, and friendly robots. We are proud to present you the future of home robotics.

Reserve your Matic for $100 today at https://maticrobots.com/cart

From The Verge - Matic mopping a glass of milk.