A robot which flies automatically around the higher areas of a room in order to clean it and brings a little bit of beauty and nature to your house.
In the western countries the number of elderly persons increases every year. It's harder for those people to clean up their dwelling, because they can't reach high areas such as edges and corners between the ceiling and the walls, or the top of the shelves and the cupboards.
Lepidopter is thought for this target group. It is a robot which flies automatically around the higher areas of a room in order to clean it. The wings trap dust, spider-webs and dirt, using static electricity. When the wings are soiled, the robot flies down to its base. The base is a decorative vase which works as a glass cabinet for the Lepidopter and as a battery charger as well. The robot has a micro-battery made of graphene and it is recharged on the base by magnetic induction. You can clean the wings once the Lepidopter has landed on its base and replace them for new ones if they are worn. Furthermore, it's possible to substitute the wings for a different design according to fashion.
The robot is as small as possible to fit in small homes and to clean every single corner, even the narrow ones. The appearance of a butterfly unites the nature with the urban space and the beauty with the cleaning. This object has an important decorative function because we don't need to clean the higher areas of a room very often, so most of the time the Lepidopter will lay on its base as a part of the home decor.
Concept developed in collaboration with Pia Lippke and subimitted to the competition Electrolux Design Lab 2013 for the category "effortless cleaning."
