Our First Robot...10 December 2005

Yup, the future begins today. Oddly enough, I, the "tech and toy" guy didn't buy it, Karen did. She watched a video at BJ's, and was sold.

The idea of having a robotic device in your house is pretty cool, but the question is, does it work?

We tried it out on our upstairs hardwood floor. What sold karen was how it can go under things like beds, places that it's neither easy nor fun to clean.

So (and no comments, have you looked under your bed lately?) here's what our floor looked like. Pretty gross.

Pretty gross.

And we let the roomba roam, all over for over an hour.

Even though our room is not a standard shape, and we left the closet doors open, it follows an interesting algorithm, and managed to go anywhere it could fit, including the closets!

And the results? You be the judge.

Remember this?
Well here's how it looks post-roomba.
Not too bloody shabby (you can see him still working away in the corner).

So we're pretty sold on the little bugger.

Now ours came with a docking station for power. For kicks, we set him about 6 feet away at 45 degree angle, to see how he'd do.

Here he goes! He started off making a bee line for it.
And than swung away, aware that he couldn't dock straight.
He then went past the line, and swung back around, doing a 180
and this time, happy with his alignment, charged right in.
and docked! Cool stuff!

Comments:

• The Roomba is surprisingly effective on our hardwood floors. It manages to pick up even fine dust on the floor surface, and you can feel the difference when it's done.
• The self docking station is cool, but not as useful as you might imagine. While it would be awesome if you had a large single room studio, the fact that you will move your Roomba to different rooms on possibly different floors makes this less effective. You also should empty it after each use, meaning you will most likely be handling the Roomba regardless.
• It takes a few moments to "prep" your room for Roombaing, including moving wires, carpets with fringe, etc. But this isn't a big deal, as you would probably do the same when you normally vacuum.
• The Roomba is not a quiet device. It's a vacuum, and makes a fair amount of noise. A non-issue really, as it can be cleaning while you're not at home. It's also bangs into everything; not enough to do damage, but it's strong enough to knock items off of flimsy furniture (like a TV table.)

Is it worth it? We say yes.