In the second half of the sweeping robot: "Sweeping Mao" soaring all the way, intelligence is the end

In 1996, the Swedish home appliance giant ELECTROLUX launched the first sweeping robot "triangular". Luxury pricing and too "artificial mental retardation" have made "three -leafworms" be rated as "industrial garbage" by the outside world, but it is also the beginning. The robot track goes forward, racking his brains to better help humans clean the ground.

(Elix Three Leaf Worm Sweeping Robot)

In the past few years, the home players of the sweeping robot were Dyson, IROBOT and other foreign brands. In recent years, Chinese brands have relying on the industry chain red profit, taking advantage of the new technologies such as AI and IoT to become the new main player. There are hot categories such as sweeping and dragging robots, and head brands such as outsiders, stones, Mijia, Cobos, and pursuit have emerged. The continuous upgrading technology refreshed the user experience, and the sweeping robot market also showed an explosive growth momentum, and it became a rare highlight in the overall home appliance industry.

"Sweeping Mao" fighters, the homogeneity of the product needs to be broken

The total data of Avi Cloud (AVC) shows that in 2021, the overall channel sales of clean electrical products in the domestic market reached 30.94 billion yuan, an increase of 28.9%over the previous year. After the emergence of different troops in 2020, it continued to outbreak in 2021. The industry scale reached 5.78 billion yuan, an increase of 348.0%year -on -year. In 2021, the proportion of smart ground washing machines in the entire clean electrical appliance market quickly climbed to 18.7%, an increase of 13.3 percentage points from the previous year. It has become the third largest category after the cleaning appliance industry after sweeping robots and wireless vacuum cleaners.

According to the statistics of Huachen Securities, the scale of global cleaning robots is expected to reach 23.3 billion in 2026, and the average annual compound growth rate in the next few years is expected to remain at a level of 7%-10%. Compared with developed countries such as the United States, the domestic market penetration rate is at a low level -as of 2021, the penetration rate of Chinese cleaning robotics is only 3%, and the United States is 12.5%, which means that the Chinese clean robot market space is wide.

Capital has already smelled the opportunity to sweep the floor sweeping robot market, and the concept of "sweeping the ground" became a hot word in the capital market. Capital blessing, coupled with the big outbreak of "parent technology" such as autonomous driving, the technical iteration of the screen sweeping robotic products is quite fast. Since 2018, revolutionary technology has appeared every year: IROBOT launched automatic dust collection stations in 2018, cloud whale in 2019 Launched the self -cleaning mop robot, the first TOF technology of Kobos and Midea in 2020, and in 2021, the cloud whale J2 launched the automatic flooding function.

I do n’t know when to start, a “imitation+integration” style appeared in the cleaning robot market. "You have me, everyone has me." Generally speaking, the new technologies will apply for patent protection, but in actual operation, it is difficult to prevent the latecomers from achieving the same functions, such as the automatic dust collection station invented by IROBOT. The imitation of each family, and the imitator often goes on a bunch of functions "to do plus methods", and occasionally a little micro -innovation. In addition, the imitator will also rely on the channel advantages or capital subsidies to compete for vicious competition to compete for market share, and the survival space of innovators is constantly squeezed.

It has been more than half of the 2022, and the market has not yet appeared in revolutionary new technologies. Is the cleaning robot reached the stage of "technical difficulty innovation"? At this stage of smart phones, it is difficult for different manufacturers to have a breakthrough innovation in terms of functional function. They have to go around the "volume" around the shell color and brand joint name. There are many user pain points waiting to be resolved at such mature stages. This is the same, the scanning robot should not enter the stage of homogeneity so early.

So what is the new generation of revolutionary technology in the cleaning robot market? To answer this question, first look at the user's pain points.

Cleaning and intelligent, the only direction of cleaning robot evolution

Regardless of how the cleaning robot evolves, its essence is a cleaning tool, and the essence of the tool is to help people complete specific tasks. Therefore, cleaning power is the first pursuit of cleaning robots, including the capacity of vacuum cleansing during sweeping the floor, and dirt cleaning ability during mopping.

Before the cloud whale J1 realizes that the mop is self -cleaned, the industry shall make articles around the ground, and the mop is artificial. Cloud whale J1 took the lead in the true sense of mop automation, and it has now become standard in the industry. However, there are still some places with lack of beauty in cleaning robots, such as physical restrictions that make it difficult for it to "be enough" as dead corners such as corners and walls. For another example, it is difficult to clean up stubborn dirt like rice grains.

In the long run, the evolutionary direction of cleaning robots in cleaning power is to replace the brooms, mops and rags at home, but it is difficult to achieve in the visible future.

Cleaning power is only one of the directions of cleaning robot evolution. Before the sweeping robot was popular, people generally used a vacuum cleaner to clean the ground. The benchmark Dyson was famous for its efficiency. Why do people buy cleaning robots? On the surface, it is because it can "mop the ground" further, and the deep look is that it can "liberate the hands": the vacuum cleaner needs to operate when working, which is essentially a more relaxed broom, but it is still a broom. However, when cleaning the robot, there is no need to operate when working. Users can sit on the sofa to play with their mobile phones. It can be seen that it is the core value that does not require artificial intervention to be different from the vacuum cleaner. It is another evolution direction. The "intelligent" of cleaning robots can be seen from multiple dimensions.

One is to evolve in the direction of "family cleaning butler" enough. No intelligent cleaning robot cleansing power. At most, it can only be used to make a part of work. Users must stare at it without doing it. For example, when using it, it is necessary to observe the cleanliness of the ground to decide whether to repeat the cleaning. Worried that the cleaning robot will be stuck ... Intelligent cleaning robots can manage cleaning tasks like a housekeeper. Users do not need to worry about it. They can supervise, zero worry, and absence.

The other is to evolve in the direction of "robot". In addition to the cleaning process, there are still some places to operate by users in some places. For example, before the cloud whale J2 is born, users need to change the water manually. Pour the garbage ... there are many links in hand. When can cleaning robots work at home, users can really "throw their hands"?

Autonomous driving technology is the "parent technology" of cleaning robots. The functions such as automatic obstacle avoidance, route planning, and intelligent building maps that are dependent on the operation of the robot are derived from the overflow of autonomous driving technology, including AI, sensors and IoT technologies. Clean robots The development process is similar to that of autonomous driving technology. As autonomous driving technology is becoming more mature, cleaning robots will become closer and closer to "unmanned" that is completely intelligent.

In summary, cleaning power and intelligence are the only directions for the evolution of cleaning robots. The brand must innovate the cleaning power at the hardware levels such as product structure design and automation components; on the other hand Related technologies realize intelligent "soft innovation".

Intelligent decision -making of cleaning solutions has become a new generation of revolutionary technology?

From 2018 to 2021, there is a technological revolution in the cleaning robot industry every year. Two contributors are cloud whales, namely J1 and 2019 J1, J2, which realized automatic mopping in 2019. At the end of August, when people thought that 2022 was the "small year" of cleaning robot technology innovation, cloud whale once again brought new possibilities for the industry with the new product of J3.

The maximum breakthrough point of the cloud whale J3 is reflected in the "intelligent". It introduced the "whale spirit custody" mode for the first time. When the user starts the "whale spirit custody" one click, it can be used for personalized parameters for different areas/rooms (such as pressing compression (such as pressing the compression Extraction of the ground to complete the ground cleaning, this process does not require users to supervise or intervene in any. This model belongs to the industry in the industry.

The background of the "whale spirit custody" function is that the function of cleaning the robot is increasingly rich. Users can make more and more custom settings, such as the number of cleaning times in different areas, the degree of dry and wet mop during cleaning, and the strength of the mop ... … If all these settings are thrown to users will greatly increase the use threshold. For popular technology products, the use of products should not be a professional skill that needs to be learned. For this, cloud whale J3 introduces the "whale spirit custody" model, which can be carried out according to the conditions of the ground, such as material, dirty, clean history, etc. Personalized cleaning, both efficient and environmental protection and cleaning.

The cloud whale J3 "whale whale custody" allows cleaning robots to enter the intelligent self -adaptation stage, relying on its original core technology: "Dirtsense sewage identification system".

Previously, users used the naked eye to judge the cleaning of the floor, and then set the number of redundant times to let the cleaning robot mop several times with experience. "How dirty the ground is", "Do you wash it clean", and make a decision such as "Do you want to drag again", "How to force when you mop the floor", "How to wash the mop during mopping" and "How long is the mop" to achieve different areas. Adaptive cleaning.

The "Whale Spirit Custard" experience based on the "Dirtsense sewage identification system" needs to be measured by the product. From the perspective of Luo Chao Channel, the biggest contribution of this function to the industry is the concept itself: just like automatic trailer and automatic watering, which allows cleaning robots to enter the adaptive stage. ", Efficient water saving and electricity, taking a key step in the intelligentization of cleaning robots. From the perspective of Luo Chao Channel, the ultimate goal of the evolution of the "whale spirit custody" is to be completely unmanned, making the "robot" of cleaning robots veritable.

In addition to the "Whale Spirit Host" mode, there are many designs of "letting users do less" in the automation, such as automatic adding precision matching cleaner, automatic switching and drag mode, etc. Dry trailer and automatic upper and lower water, the J3 needs to be involved in the intervention before using, middle, and after use. The breakthrough of cleaning power is another highlight of the cloud whale J3.

Combined with the user feedback of J1 and J2, the cloud whale considers the cleaning scene to give it more extreme and gives targeted solutions, including "twist ass" extension and leakage, corner leak -proof and drag, carpet cleaning mode, anti -dry and humid cross -crossing cross Pollution cleaning and so on.

Taking the "twist ass" extension of the dead corner of the side as an example, in the past, the cleaning robot would leave a dead end at a distance from the wall due to shape, structure and other reasons. Essence In response to this, the cloud whale J3 uses a "special twist forward" sports attitude, which can regularly "make up" the edge of the wall, and regularly clean the blind spots such as the wall and the corner. Although the cloud whale J3 still does not do 100%clean dead ends, cleaning this piece in blind spots is much stronger than all products on the market.

In the first half of 2022, the cleaning robot market fell into the mud in the homogeneous competition of products. The cloud whale J3 broke the dullness. It is not to "unified" the functions of the existing products on the market, but to explore its own way. It should be said that this is a sincere product.

It is undeniable that the new features of the cloud whale J3 are not the first in the industry, but its biggest breakthrough is based on the "whale spirit custody" model based on the "DirtSense sewage identification system", which allows cleaning robots to simulate and decide how to more efficiently efficiently decide how efficiently Cleaning, the industry's imagination space was opened.

The industry's anti -internal roll, too needed to be a player for product innovation

It is unavoidable to clean the product function of cleaning robots. When a new feature is verified, the remaining players will definitely follow the trend, because the user's needs are there, based on this, similar to the functions or technologies such as the "sewage identification system", "whale spirit custody", and "extended border supplement" Implementation will be followed up by the industry soon.

In fact, the "inner roll" of the homogeneity of products is not necessary at the current stage, because whether it is a local or a global market, the Chinese clean robot brand must really fly into ordinary people's homes. Relying on product innovation to eliminate the "dead corner" of user experience. The "outer volume" of the product innovation route instead of plagiarism and follow -up "inside rolls" can allow the industry to develop healthily.

So, what innovation does cleaning robot industry need?

First, to do it, the experience must be used to the extreme.

In 1996, Electrolux, Electrolux, launched the first sweeping robot "triangular worm". "Artificial intelligence" "overdraft user expectations.

It is easy to do a function, but it is difficult to do well. Many industries have similar phenomena: the previous immature function, the user experience was bad, not only affecting the brand image, but also overdraft users' expectations for this category. Finally, the entire industry was hurt, such as VR/AR since 2014 After the rise before and after the rise, it has been facing the problem of poor experience. Today, the brands are still paying debts for the overdraft of the year.

Experience whether the user is good or not. Cloud whale products do not blindly pursue "yes", and they will never make additional methods, but pursue a better experience to users. According to the cloud whale product team, the idea of ​​cloud whale has a "extreme product". Whether it is developing a new product or adding a new feature, "I want to bring users a more complete and extreme solution." When it believes that a solution cannot completely solve the user problem, even if it is questioned "outdated", it is better to be unhappy.

In 2021, when the cloud whale J2 was released, there was a product that had been automatically replaced on the market and the products that could be scanned at the same time. On the ground, the automatic switching module is achieved for this cloud whale consumption for one year. Based on the "DIRTFREE Cleaning Receiving System", "the mid -rolling brush lifting"+"side brush position control"+"mop raising" can be in different task scenarios. The intelligent combination of the lower part of the operation solves the problem of wet and wet pollution.

Another is enough to explain that cloud whales only do the ultimate products and attach importance to the integrity of the solution to "whether to use automatic dust collection function". Earlier, the outside world expected that the cloud whale J3 would launch the automatic dust collection function, but in the end the cloud whale J3 did not go up. The starting point of the setting out of the dust base station is good, in order to reduce the frequency of garbage pour and liberate hands. Many brands have declared that "no trash will not be poured in a few months", but the development of cloud whales is found that the existing self -setting function cannot really solve the problem of sterilization problems. , Users cannot accept the garbage for a long time, and more users are used to pouring garbage once a week, which can be solved by the product form of large dust box products. In addition, there is a problem with relatively large work noise. Essence If cloud whale's next -generation products will automatically collect dust, maybe existing problems such as bacteria, odor, noise, etc. are expected to be solved.

Second, technology is an important tool or a tool.

Many technology products have problems with "dazzling skills". For example, some cleaning robots configure the camera to achieve long -range videos, which is a pseudo -demand. The philosophy of the cloud whale is: use the tools of technology, but it will never use technology to use technology. With the problem of the "nail", there is a "hammer" of technology. Technology is a means to solve the problem. You must not "hold the hammer to find a nail" to make a product.

The largest technical innovation of the cloud whale J3 is the "DIRTSENSE sewage identification system". How to realize the degree of dirt in intelligent identification water? Use machine vision or sensor? The technical choice of cloud whale is to develop dirty dirt recognition sensor modules, which can accurately determine the degree of dirt than vision and more than the naked eye. Based on this, it can achieve new functions such as adaptive cleaning. Until the cleaning of each time, it is very different from the industry's generally re -mopping mode in accordance with the industry's presets. From the perspective of the dedicated dirty sensor for research and development, doing an innovative function even if you want to develop your own technology, cloud whale is willing to invest; otherwise, even if there is mature technology, it will not last a function for "having".

For example, in human -computer interaction, cloud whales do not go to do a seemingly cool function such as voice, but upgrade the base station with screens into color LCD touch screens, which can adapt to users to simply control on the screen. APP is linked, and young people can make some plans on the APP to push them to the base station for the elderly or other non -app users. Considering that women's nails are generally long and not convenient for "single -point" operation touch screen, their screens are also specially adapted to support the pull -down operation. The LCD touch screen is not cool, but practical.

For another example, in terms of the simple needs of noise reduction, cloud whales have also achieved comprehensive noise reduction with seemingly not cool technology. J3 Little Whale Spirit achieves the industry's leading noise reduction level through the three levels of single components, structures, and whole machine, which is only 39DB, which greatly reduces the interference of user life when cleaning operations. At the level of monomer parts, J3 uses a higher -cost mute brushless motor. The structure design level is specifically designed for the commonly used vacuum machine work noise audio section. Programs such as conduction further achieve the purpose of noise reduction. Although each technology seems not cool, the mute experience brought to users is real.

Third, less research peers products deal with users.

A strategy of the traditional home appliance industry is the tactics of machinery. The product function "people have me", designing a variety of products around different channels, different groups, and different markets as matrix, and then supplemented by channels, marketing and other means to sell products The service is done in line with sales. As a result, the product model is dazzling, but the functions are similar, and even the same product channels are different and different models.

Cloud whales do not have "machine -sea tactics" like many brands, and only three products have been launched since its establishment, and the speed is not fast, because it is not a traditional home appliance company for products and products selling products, but a hardware product with hardware products. All business logic running users is user -centric.

One is to persist in solving the real pain points of the user. Cloud whale does not look at the functions of the market products, but to see what functions can completely solve the real pain points of the user. , Let the mop formal move to "automation"; cloud whale J2 brings automatic water -to -watering function, allowing users to pour water and change the water and change water. One -click to realize the intelligent cleaning of the whole house. The user's pain point market has been seen, but it seems that each function is difficult to achieve, but the cloud whale still insists on spending great energy research and development, providing a complete solution.

The other is to innovate in the service system. Because of the "heavy service" function such as the upper and lower water modules, cleaning the robot has become a home appliance like a water purifier, and it is necessary to provide supporting on -site services. When cloud whale is doing the development of J2 products, it is already preparing a service system. Their service system includes the professional service and self -operated "whale love" special service relying on third -party cloud whale "whalers". Based on the "whalers", a young, dynamic, professional, and high -quality on -site service team combined with the self -built cloud whale brand tone. On the basis of providing professional services to users, in the service process Manufacture "Whale Hi" service experience. Cloud whale is the first large -scale player in the industry to introduce on -site services. As of now, it has provided on -site services for nearly 100,000 families, covering a one stop for reservations, survey installation, test machine leakage, use and maintenance explanation, after -sales maintenance, etc. Formulating service.

The service system is a face -to -face contact between cloud whales and users. Through this, cloud whales are made with users to establish in -depth connections, which can better understand the pain points of users and truly understand users.

In the cleaning robot market surrounded by the "Machine Sea Strategy", cloud whales have always maintained a state of "slow -paced development", and successfully squeezed into the first three camps in the industry with only two products. As a unicorn enterprise with a valuation of more than 10 billion yuan, cloud whales are not unable to develop and operate more SKUs at the same time, but why does it still adhere to the "minimalist SKU"?

There is only one answer: Cloud Whale insists on making valuable product innovation, not for different functions, not the same, do not do cool functions for dazzling skills, do not do anything because there is anything to do, and do not follow the market because of the market "windplace". The design of all product functions returns to user needs, listening to user voice, discovering users pain points, making innovation breakthroughs and insisting on making extreme products. In fact, in the industry that generally adopts "machine -sea tactics" and "rapid iteration", cloud whales adhere to such an innovative concept is difficult and dangerous: native innovation takes more time to try and error and often pay the cost that the outside world cannot see. To persist in the extreme, you need to focus more on a single or small SKU, and the polishing function details are time -consuming and energy -consuming resources. As a result, the iterative speed of cloud whale products will be slower, and SKU will be less. Even if the products are a little bit, they can be a little lower, the market is faster, and it will put pressure on cloud whale.

However, from the perspective of the industry, although the followers have exerted the value of promoting the popularization of products, the innovators who dare to do new functional exploration are the real industry pioneers. Looking back, the scanning robot can evolve from the "industrial garbage" in 1996 to today's "practical home appliances", which is inseparable from the innovation of a group of pioneers: the launch of Electrolux of the "Three Leaf Worm" of the sweeping robot's originator, and adopt a "random collision". The first -generation IROBOT product of the strategy realizes the cloud whale that is cleaned and automatically spreading in the mop ... It is exactly that they are constantly pushing out and can make the screen sweeping robot truly available, practical, and easy to use. industry.

Written at the end:

How long can the innovation momentum of cloud whales be maintained? Will it be transcended by a brand that does not take the product innovation route but has market energy? I think it depends on the next pace of the cloud whale. It is difficult to avoid being imitated by any innovative features. The brand wants to win. Only by adhering to innovation "fast people one step" runs in front of the industry or even three or five years earlier than peers. Only the pace of innovation is faster than following the trend. Plagiarism.

Taking the mobile phone industry as an example, some innovative functions of the iPhone will eventually be reduced to the industry standard, such as full touch interaction, such as Faceid, such as Siri ... but what really makes iPhone unbeaten is its brand mentality, technical precipitation, and precipitation, and The R & D mechanism and service system, these "invisible" capabilities after the "tangible" function are the key factor to determine the victory and defeat. From the perspective of building an innovative service system and forming a unique product research and development strategy, cloud whales are building These "invisible" capabilities.

Regardless of where the cloud whale eventually moves, I think that its pursuit of extreme products and insistence on innovation are valuable. In the business environment of "winner as king", such a company Especially scarce. Cloud whale only released three products, but each product changed market rules and promoted the development of categories. I sincerely hope that it can go further.

I also look forward to seeing more "Chinese creation" brands similar to cloud whales. Today's hardware market still has a large number of product innovation opportunities. It has both emerging markets such as cleaning robots, as well as many mature markets to use new consumption concepts, new technical means, and new business models to do it again. This is undoubtedly an exciting thing for a company who really wants to make a product.

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