Game Changer - A Robot Vacuum That Can Climb Stairs!

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Music: Rex Banner, We are Generations
00:00 Game Changer - A Robot Vacuum That Can Climb Stairs!
00:24 Migo Robotics
00:52 Stair Climbing
01:38 More Features
02:52 Navigation, AI, and OA
03:16 Premium Features
03:29 Kickstarter Launch
03:46 Vacuum Wars News
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[@VacuumWars]

Keep up with the latest Vacuum News at our website: vacuumwars.com/

[@a-lxs8942]

dang you're the best robot vaccum channel ever

[@nicoleriiskelia4245]

It goes up... but does it come back down?

[@KlueBat]

No way in heck I'm gonna buy the first gen of this one, but I am excited to see where this type of innovation drives the industry.

[@samsh6520]

Same here.

[@Natan9000]

😅

[@prashank]

If no one buys the first gen, the 2nd gen might not come. Just saying.

[@samsh6520]

@@prashank there are lots of first adopters.

[@Fflintiii]

Haha i thought the same ^^

[@MigoRobotics]

Immense gratitude to @VacuumWars for shining a spotlight on Ascender project. Founded in 2022, we're newcomers next to giants like iRobot, Ecovacs, and Dreame. Yet, our dynamism and passion drive us to create the ultimate robot for everyone. With support from leading VCs, we've assembled an elite robotics team, overcoming significant challenges to develop this groundbreaking robot vacuum. Crucially, Ascender is supported by one of the top robot cleaner manufacturers, ensuring robust supply chains, exceptional product quality, and strong brand presence. Keep an eye out-Ascender is gearing up for its Kickstarter debut! A huge thank you to everyone involved!

[@VacuumWars]

Good to hear from you and we wish you the best! Thanks for stopping by!

[@fawesum]

Using "dynamism" like this makes me less likely to purchase this.

[@fernandoflores3161]

It looks great! Keep up the good work!

[@tonyaalicia11]

@migorobotics our church would love to use your robot as a test run. Ill make videos and send reviews to you. Our Ecovacs deebot just died.

[@DiegoSpinola]

I'll believe it when you test it mate 😁

[@shane250]

Exactly! Kickstarter is a complete gamble at this point. You'll be lucky to get your product 2 year after the promised deadline. But... Now I'm not sure about what to do. I wanted to upgrade my old Xiaomi Mijia to the new spinning-style vacuum mop with a base fill\empty station... But that one is about $700, and now I'm thinking about waiting for this stair-climber to be tested before I upgrade. My main floor is flat, but in my basement there are 4 different rooms that have floor transition is 1.5" and higher. So even if I'll take my current one downstairs, it won't be able to clean the space. This stairs-climber is a live saver for me (if it will actually deliver all its promises).

[@emmawilliams8209]

The future of vacuuming is here!! I want one that can go to the fridge and get me a drink ❤

[@LokiDaFerret]

Good to see a new competitor in the market... someone to keep the fire lit behind RoboRock and iRobot. And I agree with you This could be a real game changer

[@keenheat3335]

mecanum wheel have much less traction than a regular wheel due to less surface area. It is also extremely loud, as loud as you shaking a can full of marbles. The omni direction movement control is a bit tricky, since depend on dirt/hair accumulated on the wheel, different wheel will have different friction. It might become hard to synchronize the wheels torque to move straight. Thus it might just move in a swerve direction instead of straight. Technically this affect regular wheel robot too, but they only have two wheels so it's easier to synchronize and compensate for loss of traction from dirt on wheel. But on a mecanum wheel configuration, all 4 wheels need to synchronize to move forward straight. The lower initial traction and uneven dirt contamination might cause the robot to not move straight unless there is some type of feed back control that compensate for the different loss in traction. But the biggest problem is still going to be the wheel noise. I used mecanum in robot application before. They are extremely loud. Unless they have some sort of noise cover or have much better bearing lubrication than regular mecanum wheel, it's going to be way too loud for indoor application. On the side note, it would be interesting to see how they detect obstacle while climbing the stair. In our lab, we usually have a separate telescoping camera to look from above to see obstacle placed on the next stair step. But their design doesnt seem to have a camera that can see above stair step. Unless the two climbing arm have a camera attached in addition to the main body camera. Would be great if the company manage to solve all the pain points.

[@Jaaxfo]

Interestingly, while some of the graphics do show mecanum wheels, others show swivel wheels. Their website's graphics are all swivel wheels, so they might have come the the same conclusion that mecanum wheels are not the best fit

[@Morberis]

Honestly my Roomba is already noisy AF. A normal vacuum is even louder. A quiet robot vacuum is a nice luxury but not a necessity imo. The ability not to go straight could be more of a problem. Honestly even the ability to stairs and not clean them would be a game changer. It doesn't also need to drive sideways if it's going to cause problems like you say. My brother's place has a single step down into the living room. This would mean he could now use a robot vacuum. That it could also go upstairs and vacuum? Chefs kiss. He would be more than happy to clean the stairs himself.

[@kodessa]

i'll be interested after i see it climb soft edged carpet stairs

[@anticom1337]

My concern is around-the-corner stairs that get very narrow to one side. Also what will the minimum stair depth be? Exciting technology nonetheless!

[@Jovi_97]

This thing just sounds too good to be true. It is very hard to believe they could live up to all those promises. I smell a kickstarter run and hide situation. I am though VERY excited to see if they actually succeed with it. I might think about getting the next generation of it after all the kinks have been worked out.

[@float32]

Or the price will be crazy

[@BaawBee]

The only innovative thing is the stair climbing. Everything else has already been perfected

[@float32]

@@BaawBee corners cleaning had not been perfected. lol.

[@BaawBee]

@@float32 robovacs/mops already do that. I can tell your new to the technology so I'd suggest actually doing research rather than just assuming things based off your imagination 😉

[@float32]

@@BaawBee I have two: iRobot J7+ and a Dreame L20 Ultra (top vacuum/mop according to this channel). They are both round. They both are pretty terrible at corners, relying on that little spinning brush. If it were rectangular, it could, you know, fit in the corner.

[@mackone9915]

Looks slick but it still needs to vacuum/mop efficiently. Aside from still dragging a dirty pad over carpets (even at 2 cm) and soft edged stairs, here are a few points: 1) The pivoting vacuum head width seems very small in relation to the whole device (especially versus the 16in. width with the climbing arm/batteries). It's going to need to get dirt to the "mouth". Can the rotating side brushes do that and especially near chair legs, etc? 2) Large battery capacity but with the small rollers how many passes and how long will it take to complete? 3) For those with pets, what is the dust bin capacity and what does empty/resume look like if its on a different floor? This is the whole question of whether climbing and cleaning stairs really makes sense. Climbing is one thing but even hand push vacuums require different configurations for cleaning stairs. The required narrowness will always significantly reduce performance in open spaces. Maybe where this rests is to climb but not clean and get out the wand or hand vac for the stairs. We'll see and good luck, guys!

[@peterrose5746]

I liked the “final frontier” quote. Can almost hear Captain Kirk ordering the stairs to be cleaned!

[@zodiacfml]

Watching this, only now I realized that the solution to this multi-story house problem is just to buy one robot vac for each floor.

[@anubizz3]

Or just buy multiple dock

[@XXLuigiMario]

Docks take up a lot of space though

[@waqasahmed939]

Pretty much. Tbh actually going to spend £650 to remove a step that connects my utility room and my kitchen, and add vinyl Then the utility room's floor would be raised slightly. The ONLY reason for me to do so is so that a robot can easily go between the two, and then I can leave the kitchen closed with the windows open in winter. That's a big plus. I'd also want a separate robot for say bathrooms because they're often quite dirty in a way but there's not many small ones. There's the Switchbot but the mop on the K10+ is a bit rubbish.

[@stephaniewilson8706]

But then u still gotta do the stairs yourself 😔

[@milespo5351]

@@stephaniewilson8706 if you have carpet stairs, well that sucks, but any hard floor stairs like ours can be easily swept. I’m lazy, so I don’t even sweep it up. Down to the bottom for the vacuum to eat.

[@Nutta1]

Hopefully this forces ecovacs and Roborock and others to create similar products. I have a X1 Omni then the square head X2 comes out fixes most of my issues by getting into corners and walls better and lifting mopping pads. But this is an entire new level I didn't think would be achieved. 👌🏻

[@Suffirella]

I supported Migo Robotics through their kickstarter campaign after learning about them on this channel . I have a lot of faith in the company and the product but so far there has not been a lot of third party information / opinions available. Would love to see an updated factory visit / dev video from your eyes. And of course cross my fingers everything works out as planned for them, and therefore also for me as early backer :)

[@Kryojenix]

OH darn, my 2-month 0ld top-tier robovac just got obsoleted! (again)

[@lindascoon4652]

I want this. No I NEED this

[@bluepandaman]

Man this would be amazing. I have 3 levels in my house and can't imagine having 1 robot cleaning them all.

[@chat-1978]

Opening and closing doors is the final frontier. You can buy multiple robots for every floor but if the door is closed out too open then it can't enter or it can't clean behind the door.

[@Catsrules1]

Just get cats. They will not allow any door to be closed so problem solved.

[@chat-1978]

@@Catsrules1 there is a spot behind the doors that they can't reach. Vacuums won't push a door. It's not about unlocking but rotating it out of the way

[@Sun.n.Flowers]

I want this on my Roborock!! This is the future tech!

[@bluehannah8696]

Exactly what I’ve been waiting for.

[@thomast7748]

😂

[@BillyGlyde108]

More moving parts, more points of failure. Love the innovation.

[@Allaiya.]

I was literally just thinking about this the day before I heard about it. That only if they could do stairs. lol

[@ryankozak99]

Looks like the swath (vacuuming width) is much narrower in this design - no surprise pressure can be much higher. It'll need that bigger battery for all the passes it will take for a given area.

[@KirbyEnthusiast]

Awesome upload 👍👍

[@jewishmomo]

Finally! Been waiting for a stair climber

[@ZadesLegacy]

Very awesome you're covering this. I feel their effort deserves at least more attention then its been receiving. I am very concerned about the early adopter pains it might bring though. So it would be cool if in addition to your normal testing, you could do some follow up reviews on how it fairs over time.

[@tyr0n313]

I just backed this last night and managed to grab the LAST spot on the “launch package.” Where it was $799 with an extra accessory package. I really hope this works out. Your preview here helped me decide when you compared the battery, pressure, and suction power. I just hope they live up to it.

[@VacuumWars]

We are really excited to see how it goes!

[@Demonomania87]

Very cool product from this startup, I always enjoy potentially disruptive and innovative products, and even moreso in a product category that is already innovative by default. I have some questions though, mostly related to wear and tear and day to day use, and also I wonder how it deals with stairs that don't have perfect 90 degree angles (such as spiral stairs), staircase runners/carpets, and stairs with treads that hang over the risers. If they can tackle those issues I think I would seriously consider buying it.

[@JamesAutoDude]

Sounds like a typical KickStarter that will never be fulfilled

[@Morberis]

I kinda agree. I can dream, but it's making so many promises. If it was just a normal robot vac that could climb stairs, ok.

[@danielmiecz909]

OH MY GOD FINALLY IVE BEING WAITING FOREVER

[@ici_coop]

Daleks!!

[@monica46549841]

So they are progressing.

[@FeniksGaming]

If it sounds too good to be true it probably is but I'm excited this may spark further progress in the industry

[@SirxMMPD]

This looks really cool!

[@googleyoutubechannel8554]

The last frontier of robotics: stairs.

[@RN-hx1rs]

I can’t wait for humanoid robots. Stairs are a bane in our house.

[@donnawillis2030]

Your videos are very informative. What do you think about the Shark Matrix Plus 2 in one vacuum/mop?

[@ddhh5]

Now I want to buy a house with stair case so that I can buy that vacuum.

[@MrBlueCreeper]

Interesting!!!

[@VacuumWars]

Very!

[@disciprine]

Would not touch that Kickstarter with a 10 foot pole Their promo video was quite corny and looks like many other vaporware kickstarters.

[@JJ-si4qh]

Exciting

[@milespo5351]

I wouldn’t be surprised it It gets to the top of the stairs and alerts you that the battery needs to be recharged. I don’t see this feature being convenient for at least another 5 years

[@CaptainBenjamins]

Instead of buying a robot that climbs stairs, I just do this: 1) buy a robot for each level of floors you have (think of it as a long term investment on wear and tear) 2) To clean my hard wood stairs, I just get my powerful leaf blower and blow the heck out of the stairs every couple months Viola now I don’t have to invest in a stair climbing vacuum

[@dancazacu5096]

Stairs is not the final boss when it comes to automated vacuum cleaners. Chords, objects and logic are! AI needs to take over this whole computer vision thing in order for everything to work as you'd expect. Cheers!

[@KH-mq4rg]

I want one!!!!! ❤❤

[@lesliemalaga.314]

Would you be able to do a series on following up on the vacuums, has their suction gotten worse? What about battery?

[@nicolaisvlog8701]

i want a Robot shower

[@FangerZero]

I'm taking the gamble, As long as it helps maintain the fur from all the animals in my home I'll be happy. I don't need it to be perfect I just need it to keep the fur down.

[@KirbyEnthusiast]

This would be so handy fur double storey houses. They’ve stopped building them here in Australia

[@HAL_NOVEMILA]

is it a bagless system?

[@angrydalek]

As first gen products go, it will A. have unforeseen bugs, problems, teething problems B. be likely upwards of $3K.

[@ShrimpCracka]

DOPE

[@stephaniewilson8706]

When will you be getting your hands on one to test it?

[@YouTrolol]

can we get 5ghz wifi support? i bought a roomba second hand and absolutely cannot get this thing to connect via my iphone. so it's pretty much ewaste unless i sell it...

[@Gaarax1981]

If the robot can't descend the stairs is usuless...and its not shown on the videos

[@2down4up]

Very cool! I hope it works out but I definitely won’t be a first gen beta tester. That said, this also has a feel of too good to be true so my scam alert is twitching a bit.

[@ilovethinknoodles]

You vid are bangers!!!

[@tuanivando9634]

This is a game changer

[@wokenfree]

Needs to open doors to 100% the game 🤣

[@DanTaiPT]

I need a robot vacuum and mop to clean rubber in flooring. Please can you help?

[@Texas_Made_]

❤you vacuum wars😢

[@WontSeeReplies]

How does it clean under those climbing arms? No sense in climbing stairs if it doesn’t get the sides.

[@deandollahite4779]

Maybe a review for the Narwal Freo coming soon?

[@ThatsPety]

Do you make your news thing available as an rss feed? I would love that

[@VacuumWars]

thanks for asking! Try this: vacuumwars.com/category/news/feed/

[@ThatsPety]

@@VacuumWars awesome! I'll be sure to tune in

[@nicoleriiskelia4245]

But does it go back down??

[@RoboVacParty]

I was lurking for that design some time ago. Seems to be good idea, solving many problems, i.e. stair cleaning.

[@samos8856]

why is water dripping from my braava jet® m6? water runs under the Brava when I lift it up on the back side it drips where the battery is WHY?THANK YOU. I am from greece

[@tyr0n313]

Unfortunately they just sent a message out today to all backers that they need an addition $5M in funding. Thankfully they are returning all kickstarter funds. It sounds like they’re still perusing it, but didn’t want to make their backers wait potentially years. So as a backer I appreciate that. Awfully disappointed though, was very excited for it.

[@mikezheng33]

Hey I know this channel focuses on vacuums but I’ve seen you branched out to air purifiers too. Would you consider also testing portable air conditioners? I feel it’d be a good fit and admittedly I would like to see your testing on one.

[@VacuumWars]

We can keep that in mind but it would really require a whole suite of testing that we haven't developed yet. So it would be a good long while. We appreciate your confidence though. Thank you.

[@Nonybusinessxxxxxx]

funny I was thinking about how to design a stair climbing Roomba and here it is pretty much what I thought of. one thing with robot vacuums... they take forever. who wants to sit there and have these things run for hours when you can whip a stick vas out and vacuum quickly and efficiently. I work from home so the noise level of these things and the duration is a no go for me...

[@Thecaptainblackadder]

How amazing are the stuff coming out of China!

[@kewlztertc5386]

The only problem I see is the placement of the roller brush and intake. This should be near one of the four sides instead of the middle.

[@JunkyVirus]

Yeah when a company is trying to be that transparent and show all the processes etc it's incredibly shady. And as a new company coming out with something no other manufacturer is even close to doing AND doing everything the other manufacturers are doing but much better? Yeah no, I'm not that gullible.

[@gizellapopescu3355]

Curious to see how it tackes spiral stairs , since they are not equal and are at an angle

[@MigoRobotics]

Ascender can navigate stairs of various heights, widths, and styles. Please note that the stairs' height should be under 8.7 inches/22 cm, and the minimum width of circular/spiral stairs on the widest side should be 5.9 inches/15 cm. A rule of thumb: If an adult can comfortably step on the stairs, Ascender should be well-equipped to manage them.

[@ventusprime]

My only Q what happens with the robot when there are ap upgrade

[@Byhrum]

It seems odd to give awareness to a product that might charge people and never deliver. Its a cool project but, there are no guarantees of them honoring early backers or living up to the expectations. Just my 2c, there should be a heads up about this, people might think that they are backing something that will arrive, it might not. Also, why is the app design exactly like the old roborock app? The icons, color and layout is all the same 🤔🤔

[@MigoRobotics]

Hello, our app was built upon a public, open-source robot vacuum app framework, which we've significantly enhanced with Ascender's unique functionalities. It's true some icons might appear similar, likely because we originated from the same source code but diverged through our modifications. Plus, like most sophisticated crowdfunding campaigns today, we offer an unconditional refund policy.

[@Byhrum]

@@MigoRobotics thank you for clarifying on the app part, that makes sense. I'm still hesitant about the refunding part, many crowd funded projects have said that in the past and here we are, with nothing delivered or deliveries that take years to arrive with sub-par quality. I reckon people would feel safer if you just went with a VC out of the box like matic robot.

[@mtbrdude]

Will you guys please test some backpack vacuums? Makita has some for a thousand bucks! Are they any good?

[@VacuumWars]

You're right that we haven't looked at those. Thank you for asking!

[@joe5574]

I’m going to wait for the Descender 2.0 upgraded version

[@mofo78536]

I wonder how this compare to designing a house that can be navigated by a bot? e.g. a bot elevator?

[@PeterTrimboli]

I'm interested I'll wait to see people try it before I get it but I've been waiting for this I have allot of steps in my house and that's the only reason I don't have a robot vacuum

[@CreativeFunction]

Golden Retriever fur is going to destroy those wheels.

[@VacuumWars]

interesting thought.

[@kadiyalavasundhara5879]

I want one

[@BananaChipzzz]

How will it handle stairs around a curve. Those steps taper at one end, so it’s unlikely to be able to clean them effectively.

[@VacuumWars]

That will be interesting to see too!

[@Sun.n.Flowers]

This over a newer RR model? RR has already established its brand. RR has worked out issues in some models, but is more expensive than this kickstart model and doesn't climb and clean stairs...

[@seanl8930]

But 17N is way too strong for wood floors to handle. I had a robot vac that used 10N of pressure and it left permanent scratches in my wood flooring.

[@rcmaniac25]

Was gonna say "oh hot dang, where's my wallet" but the first comment I saw brought me back to reality on "not first gen". While I'm more then happy to be bleeding edge of tech, even expensive things, I'm not sure this would work for me. I'm in a single floor apartment, so the stairs aren't a thing to worry about. The little animation of moving a trash can is awesome... but what about a full trashcan? As another comment mentioned, those wheels have less traction so moving a full pin is gonna be harder, and most of my stuff are normal full size bins... so even harder to pull off. I would need to see other features if I would get any use out of this or if it's just a fancy combo unit. Also... the iRobot + Amazon deal fell through? Oh snap.

[@MigoRobotics]

Hi There, this is Bryan from Migo Robotics. Thank you for your kind words! Regarding moving the trash can, it would only be triggered when the trash can is on hard floor not carpet and the "smart cleaning" mode has to be manually turned on from the APP. And Ascender has enough traction to push heavy trash can up to 5KG (note: plastic bin on hard wood floor).

[@Kryojenix]

0:58 missed opportunity for servo-droid Kryten and his groinal attachment ...

[@kaymann8007]

TAKE MY MONEY!!!

[@iCakeMen]

I hope this will actually turn into a good product and please no vacuum cleaner bags in the station. I hate having to buy those, takes away from the autonomy level.

[@PierceMD]

Sounds like a lot of moving parts! I hope the future will allow Valetudo hacking

[@moortu]

Be warned, they are likely a scam or at least overpromising. They mention in the comments of having talked to valetudo for integration, but they did NOT. They even had to remove those claims from their kickstarter campaign page because valetudo warned them to remove them

[@ybing]

finally stair cleaning lol Sad that iRobot started all these and now everyone's house is using Chinese brand 😮‍💨

[@j.p3701]

IRobot is DONE. Time to switch to a different company and move on.

[@ybing]

@@j.p3701 That's why I'm using S8 lol, waited for years, but they just stuck with old tech

[@user-xz6gm3bq4s]

the biggest issue i can see if the corners cant be vac as thebrushs cant reach that far

[@Tstarke97]

You should really get into autonomous lawn mower reviews!

[@Tstarke97]

It would be so helpful to get good info on them.

[@kinglord5429]

What will the price be, ouch

[@cerebralvision]

Nah I'm gonna wait for the version that can clean up my kids mess everywhere too. No point in a robo vac when there's toys all over the floor.

[@Jiyoon02]

I'm wondering how expensive it will be. Like, if one of those stairs climbing Roomba is more expensive than two of your typical robot vacuums, then why not buy two regular vacuums and place each on each floor?

[@waqasahmed939]

Because this vacuums the stairs themselves too, and doesn't just simply climb them. Kinda cool

[@nickoftime3653]

holy flipperonis

[@vespineyt]

YES

[@VacuumWars]

We are excited too!

[@vespineyt]

Thank u so much for responding!! And I’m also really exited!!

[@GEN_ZT]

Here in the 1st minute!

[@Thedonsmoney25823]

Did anyone hear about the Bissell recalls lately across us and Canada