Electrolux · working robot
Trilobite
An early round robot vacuum that struggled with collisions and coverage and was later dropped.
- Price
- $1,800Cheaper than 50%
- Height
- —Not published
- Weight
- —Not published
- Payload
- —Not published
- Speed
- —Not published
- Battery
- —Not published
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Why it matters
Electrolux introduced the first robot vacuum in 1996; the Trilobite relaunch in 2001 is one of the first sold robot vacuums.
Real-world use
Consumers
Maker
ElectroluxCompany · SwedenHow it stacks up
Against other working & field robots that publish the figure. Pick a measure.
Trilobite costs less than 50% of the 20 other working & field robots that publish a price. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Not published by the maker: height, weight, speed, payload, joints, battery.
Public attention
A historic robot: no longer sold or in use, so it is not ranked against current machines.
- 10,522 views of its Wikipedia article in the last 90 days (Electrolux Trilobite)
- No recent press stories listed yet
Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-14; same method for every robot. How it is measured
What’s inside
The parts the company has talked about publicly.
- Movement
- Wheeled base
- How it runs
- Fully autonomous. It vacuumed rooms by itself, using ultrasonic sensing to steer around furniture and returning to its base to charge.
- Actuators & motors
- Two drive wheels plus casters; vacuum and removable roller brush.
- Sensors & vision
- Ultrasonic sensors to map rooms and avoid obstacles; infrared cliff sensors added on the Mark 2 (ZA2); magnetic strips mark no-go areas.
- Battery & power
- About one hour between charges; returns to its base to recharge.
- Other details
- About 2 kg, 35 cm across, 13 cm tall. Followed in 2016 by Electrolux's MotionSense.
From the maker
Trilobite is the only machine from Electrolux in the atlas.
Made, sold and where
Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.
- Price
- $1,800About SEK 14,000 planned Swedish retail price (Electrolux Group, November 2001).
- How to get one
- No official buying page found
- Sold or delivered
- Commercially launched in 2001; Trilobite version 2.0 was developed in 2003 for introduction in 2004 (Electrolux Group, company history and 2004 AGM speech).
- Where it is sold or used
- Sweden (Electrolux)
- Customers and pilots
- Consumers
Side by side with its peers
Picked by the same rules for every robot: another maker’s robot that moves the same way, is at the same stage and does at least one of the same main jobs, first shown within two years. Closer size and price rank higher. Few robots match closely, so these are the nearest matches. How we choose
| Measure | TrilobiteElectrolux |  Roomba (original)iRobotSame job: home floor vacuuming · Both on wheels · Both past robots |
|---|---|---|
| First shown | 1997-12-01 | 2002-09-18 |
| Status | Discontinued | Discontinued |
| Height | — | — |
| Weight | — | — |
| Joints | — | — |
| Speed | — | — |
| Payload | — | — |
| Battery | — | — |
| Price | $1,800 | $199 |
Sources
Figures come from press coverage. Every link below backs something on this page.
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