AIPER Seagull Pro
This Seagull Pro pool cleaning robot received one of the CES innovation awards, though the image that first popped into my head was from the Love, Death + Robots episode Zima Blue where (spoilers) we learn that one of the universe’s most beloved artists was actually an artificial intelligence originally designed to automatically clean pools.
When I asked the AIPER reps about the episode, they seemed incredibly confused, so I let go of the dream of one day seeing a pool cleaning robot develop full sentience. On the flip side, I wanted to see the company’s most expensive model navigate a pool and cling to walls as it was advertised. Once I finally got to the booth, I watched as the device crawled along the bottom of a shallow pool before getting to the side of the tub, slowly start to push itself vertically before bouncing off and landing back on the bottom. The poor bot then turned around and moseyed over to the other end where it repeated its limp attempt to scale the 90 degree angle.
It may be incapable of climbing glass and things could be different for pool material as the company demonstrated in its promo videos. Though we are truly a long time from seeing any pool cleaning bot capture the world with its art. -Kyle Barr
