The irobot roomba, is a range of autonomous robotic vacuums, the first of the series was introduced back in 2002. This might sound like science fiction, but scientists and made a working robot that vacuums your floor.
See this video from Irobot on their Roomba.
The robot has dropped in price since those early days and is now priced inline with other traditional vacuums. In Jan 2008 2.5 million homes had a Irobot roomba, I’m sure by now that number has increased significantly.
This is a round robot about 1.5 feet wide and 4 inches high, it is designed to automatically go around your floor hoovering as it goes. The brains of the robot has improved over it generations with the latest version having the best cleaning methods yet.
The latest version of the irobot roomba is programmable to clean at specific times and days of the week. This means you can leave to go to work and come back to find the floor hoovered as if by magic. The Sci-fi writers didn’t get it far wrong.
There have been 3 generations of Irobot Roomba, the first was a very basic unit that needed the user to input the room dimensions to carry out the operation. The second and third generations really improved the functionality of the machine. With introduction of schedulers, heavy dirt detectors, and home bases where the unit can charge its batteries.
The key element of the Irobot roomba is its simplicity. They have managed to make one of the most technically advanced items in your home one of the simplest to use. Functionality is controlled by 3-5 buttons, with the most basic being “Clean “ a simple press starts the unit and a few minutes later your floor is cleaned.
The basic principles of the hoover is the same as most normal hoovers, however they have managed to compress it into a small unit. With a wide brush system and a sweeper arm that pulls all materials from under fridges or edges of walls. It is a well design hoover even without the robotic aspect.
So this all sounds amazing but can it clean the floor? As a Irobot roomba owner I was skeptical of the quality of hoovering this unit would do. However due to the algorithms that Rodney Brooks the designer used the unit isn’t the most efficient in how it moves around the room. This results in the unit often going over the same spot 3 times in a clean cycle. Effectively cleaning the floor 3 times more than you would normally do. This combined with a good brush/hoover system results in a great cleaning system.
I applaud the design team at Irobot Roomba, as the really do hold to the acronym KISS. “Keep It Simple Stupid”. Not only is the unit very easy to use, but they have kept the logic inside the unit simple. With these two elements combined it results in a very user friendly system and one hell of a vacuum cleaner.
Oh and for you Sci-Fi fans it beeps like R2 D2 ..
