Braaun ‘LiDAR’ sweeping robot
Braaun ‘LiDAR’ sweeping robot FAILFeb Many false claims are put forward in their advertising for this product: The advertising showed it weaving a path through a set of obstacles. As supplied it was completely unable to avoid obstacles continuously bumping into things and then (nearly) always simply making a right turn. One time it entered a space and never managed to get out again, unable to exit through the wide gap it came in through, and going round in circles until it ran out of battery. It covers some areas (pathways) multiple times and other large areas not at all. It therefore requires the whole area to be swept by hand afterwards. The ‘sweeping robot’ is thus a complete waste of time. LiDAR implies that it should be capable of mapping the space it is in and therefore of avoiding obstacles, and also of mapping where it has swept and where it hasn’t. Clearly it doesn’t. The advertising (and its name) implies it uses LiDAR to sense its environment and avoid collisions. It has no LiDAR functionality. The advertising shows that the metal circle on the top raises up to activate the LiDAR scanners, but it is completely fixed so clearly no LiDAR scanners are incorporated. The advertising claims that it has a large dust container allowing it to operate for over a month. It doesn’t - it has a small space inside the sweeper that rapidly fills. The advertising shows it retreating into a large container ‘home’ box presumably where the dust from each sweep is supposedly emptied and the sweeper gets recharged. No such container box was supplied. The advertising showed it mopping up spills. As supplied it couldn’t, simply scattering the spill across the floor. Only dust flicking brushes were supplied. The advertising showed it managing to negotiate a small step with lever wheels that lift up over the step. As supplied it did not have this mechanism and indeed I found it stuck with wheels spinning when it managed to get onto a very small step. Three weeks ago I informed Braaun of these failings and requested a refund. There has been no reply.