BY TAN KIT HOONG

Samsung's new robot vacuum is more powerful than ever.

THIS VACUUM SUCKS: Very well, that is.

ROBOT vacuum cleaners have been around for a while, but the challenge for manufacturers has always been in making the machines powerful yet small enough to navigate under the furniture.

Samsung believes it has the problem licked with the Powerbot VR20H9050UW/ME robot vacuum cleaner.

For one, the Powerbot is equipped with a digital inverter motor which produces a level of suction that the company claims is 60x more powerful than ­conventional robot vacuum cleaners.

On top of that, the Powerbot’s CycloneForce technology uses centrifugal force to keep particles from clogging the vacuum, thus maintaining maximum suction power.

It also features a Height Performance FullView sensor which detects even small ­obstacles across a wide area.

The company claims that the robot can create a complete map of the home and calculate the most efficient cleaning path to take while avoiding various obstacles thanks to high ­performance sensors and an on-board digital camera.

Of course, like all robot ­vacuum cleaners, the Powerbot will guide itself back to the ­docking station to recharge when its battery runs low.

The Powerbot is available now for RM3,499 (inclusive of GST).