Petting Dreame ..The amazing Mop Bot and Its Uncanny Vision!

A light bantering on the human machine first interactions..

Cleaning home was becoming a task. With recommendations from friends, we bought for Dreame L20 Ultra for Thanksgiving for about 600$.

It is quite a marvel. Does both vacuum and mop, by a single command of the phone. Powered by AI and LIDAR technology, an easy app interface to map the rooms and set up custom cleaning schedules, and a base station to recharge the bot, empty the trash into a bag, and clean and dry the mop pads!

Well Well.. As we began to unbox and use it, some hard and funny moments followed.

An unexpected fly enters the cleaning arena at the kitchen.. Obstacle detected! And Dreame takes a zigzag motion like almost avoiding the fly.

A small lentil on the floor.. And Dreame strikes it off, like a carrom striker. Lentils and grains perhaps need different treatment than dust Dreame?

I rolled my carpet one day.. Blindly, Dreamy did its job. Assuming the carpet was there, mop pads lifted and swings into full suction for that immaculate cleaning of the imaginary carpet.. Common Dreame.. Do not hallucinate.. Use some common sensing!

I would be in awe at its design.. Linear sweeps in the Kitchen.. Tiny Circular protruding mop pads.. What application of math and geometry! A gallon of water enough for many cleanups. What a saver of water! Amusing indeed!

And the classic beginners problem.. Each time after cleaning the mop pads, the Base Station cried out.. “Sensor has detected abnormal water levels”

What the heck? It is a new unit with just the first cycle of mopping.. Can the App be not more useful? Initial diagnostic tests could have sensed this connection issue? I had to read through reddit and other pages.. Having cleaned many spills and some troubleshooting, I was hoping for some respite, otherwise return the unit.

Ah.. All it needed was a hard push of the lid on top of the soiled water tank, hence establishing vacuum and pumping of soiled water back to the tank. Ah.. Domain of physics where software diagnostics failed to intervene . Some product vision missing.

The other day I changed the placement of the Base Station to a more central location at home. As the Bed Rooms were at the fag end of the living room. But wait. It was refusing to clean the kitchen as it could no longer map it. Frustrated, I force landed the bot in the kitchen, and like a lost infant, it kept going to the old location of the Base Station waiting for a beacon of hope.

And changing back the Base Station to the original place, the navigation issues still persisted. The bot started having altered and shifted perspectives of rooms, and totally messed up. There must have been a sensible way of handling it. Having lost my cool, I uninstalled the app, and recreated the profile again.

The grandmothers fondly petted it as misamma. How diligent and hardworking.. See See! It even turns on the light in the hard to spot dark corners!

My tech savvy husband totally happy with the bot. Cleaning at finger tips! Culmination of LIDAR, AI and what not.. Apparently, one could remotely summon it to a room, and take pictures if the situation needed. Uncanny vision indeed!

And when it suddenly goes swinging all around except the messy edges.. What just changed? Duh! Dont you see the point of this task? And I checked with my very knowledgeable coworker.. You have setup Intelligent mode. It checks every week the amount of dust it collects. If it sees a reduction, it thinks GOOD JOB and takes it easy.. You should use it more often in the natural condition and not self clean perhaps. And You should switch to Genius Mode.

Ah! Revelling in Intelligence, Some half baked Dreame optimisation looks like..

With some Intelligence & AI, Perhaps it can observe the Physics of Dust Formation and Collection. Not so random at all. And attack these spots with optimization.. Boom!

Having fun with this little home assistant.. Uncanny vision in the era of AI.. Some learning for me..