Is Dyson Project N223 A Robot Vacuum Cleaner?

Vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson could be working on a Roomba rival, if a new teaser video is anything to go by, as the British firm prepares for a new product launch next month. Details on Dyson Project N223 are scant, with nothing but a product's-eye-view of the engineering team to go by.

Still, the video does lead to some obvious possibilities. The perspective of the camera – down near the ground – suggests a low-level device, like the disc-shaped cleaning robots we've seen from Roomba, Samsung, and others, for instance.

Meanwhile, the occasional snippets of computer-generated mapping could be the semi-intelligent plotting of a vacuuming route around a room.

According to Dyson, Project N223 is the result of sixteen years of work, 200 engineers, and £28m ($46.4m) investment. That's no small task, and the cleaner would presumably contain the best of Dyson's ongoing work into bagless, cyclonic technology.

What's yet to be seen – if, indeed, this is a robot vacuum – is how it will navigate. The camera on top may be a feint, only intended for the teaser, with the robot instead using some sort of radar or laser mapping system.

We'll know more come September 4th, when Dyson is promising a full reveal.

Update: Eagle-eyed reader David pointed out that the new header image on Dyson's Twitter page shows what appears to be a 360-degree lens, ideal for a low-profile robot to get a full view of the room around it. In fact, we could well be looking at a section of the top of Project N223 here.