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First Look: Roomba Intelligent FloorVac (with PHOTO)
Automated Vacuum Cleaner Sucks Up Cleaning Chore


The Roomba Intelligent FloorVac from iRobot is a UFO-shaped vacuum cleaner. It's a little more than a foot in diameter, it's 3 inches tall, and it runs on a rechargeable NiMH battery.

The battery provides between 60 minutes and 90 minutes of operation per charge, depending on the type of surface it operates on. The bad news is that it takes a whopping 12 hours to recharge the battery, unless you spend an additional $65 for a charger that'll do it in two.

Roomba uses much less power than traditional vacuum cleaners, and because the robot runs on a rechargeable NiMH battery, it needs to be very efficient in its power consumption.

Roomba has a relatively low-powered vacuum to suck up small particles, and rotating brushes (without suction) that can collect larger debris that the the suction can't handle. Roomba also has a bagless particle bin and air filter.

Roomba was programmed in the C programming language and compiled using commercially available software. The algorithms are executed by a 40MHz eight-bit processor utilizing 256 bytes of RAM.

Tidy Up Before You Clean

With its $200 price, I had doubts about the Roomba's ability. While $200 make seem like an acceptable price for a good vacuum cleaner, what kind of artificial intelligence are you going to get at that price? Two facts about Roomba put my AI concern at ease:

 IRobot is also known for inventions such as the PacBot robots, famous for scouring the caves in Afghanistan.
 IRobot and MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have reportedly been working on this project for more than a decade.

To use Roomba, you need to do some cleaning up and arranging in advance.

First, miscellaneous items must be removed from the floor. For me, those items included clothes, CD cases, computer cables, and poker chips. Rugs with fringes and similar items must also be dealt with because they can get stuck in the agitator brushes.

Secondly, the room to be vacuumed must also be confined within barriers. The Roomba comes with a virtual wall unit that can block archways and doorways up to 13 feet across with an infrared beam that the Roomba will not cross. I found that phone books, boxes, and trash cans can be just as effective.

Roving Vacuum

After prepping the room, I finally turned on Roomba and let it do its dirty work. The robot is designed to clean while letting you do other things, but on first use there's no way you can take your eyes off the thing.

Roomba's navigation works by using artificial-intelligence algorithms designed to cover the existing floor space efficiently. It begins by traveling around the floor in a spiral pattern for a while or until its retractable bumper makes contact with an object and changes direction.

Upon first contact with an object, Roomba makes small, clockwise adjustments until its path becomes clear again. Once clear, these tiny adjustments continue and allow Roomba to stay along a wall or object such as a sofa. Eventually Roomba cycles through additional modes of operational behavior.

Does It Suck?

Almost every square inch of floor space is covered, albeit some many more times than others. My carpet was left with that freshly vacuumed look. Roomba picks up small debris but would often miss things that tend to cling to a carpet's fibers, such as pillow feathers.

Roomba was more effective in picking up the debris on the linoleum floor of my kitchen. I found plenty of debris collected inside the particle bins, but the carpet fuzz in the brushes can be a major pain to clean.

After several uses, you learn how to arrange a room for Roomba so it can work most efficiently. Roomba can be a convenient and effortless way to quickly polish up any room with minimal effort. But for serious cleaning you'll need a more powerful vacuum.
Company: IRobot
Price: $200
Available: Now