Robot Vacuum Then and Now

This is a story about how people perceived robot vacuums in the past, highlighting the significant differences between the ones are being sold today for regular home use.

The most common automatic device that used in your home some years ago and probably one of the very first ones on the market were the “Roombas” vacuum cleaners. You know, the ones that appearing in the funny videos, carrying a happy cat around, while cleaning the house.

Not that they were not good for their times, but they definitely evolved since. Unfortunately, a lot of people got tired of their imperfections and imprecision and eventually they’ve got them out of their mind. I spoke recently with a friend and told him how happy I was with buying one robot vacuum, and how satisfied I was to have the house cleaned up, while I could do other work. And believe me, it was not one of the expensive ones. I said to myself, what’s going to hurt spending $200? That’s how much I paid for it. And in this money I’ve got a “smarty” one. And I really liked what I read about it. But about that, later. Anyway, my friend is telling me, with the tone of the “know it all” guy, “I’ve had one, years ago. I did some good, but it was aimlessly going all over the place, probably achieving enough coverage by doing it long enough”. He had a dog, which would constantly leaving hair around. So, my friend figured that if he would leave the robot running all the time while he was away, it would achieve some acceptable level of cleanliness. Well, that would work to some extent, until the robot would get stuck on a sock left on the floor, or would find it in a disaster, entangled with the phone charger cable. And obviously, eventually would run out of battery and stop wherever that occurred.   

Wait a minute, when was that? I said. I must have been eons ago, when the robot vacuum devices where not real robots but some mechanical apparatus carrying a noisy suction fan and some, I have to recognise, ingenious electro-mechanical component, which would randomly guide it through the house and labeling that as intelligence.That would be like a man trying to show his intelligence by wearing his glasses. 

Today’s vacuums, even some of the most affordable ones, have a system that enables them to see their surroundings. Not only that, but they understand the concept of room. They can see the height of a carpet and adjust its height and its suction. They can see and detect different types of floors. If they see an obstacle, they will definitely go around it. While in the kitchen one day, I watched mesmerized as it repeatedly went over the same spot, back off a few inches, and then go again. Eventually, after a few cycles in this manner, it just continued. So, I thought to myself, maybe not as good as I thought. Then I went and checked that respective area and I notice a small piece from a label stuck on the floor. Then I realized that was not just doing its planned route, but it noticed the label on the floor and he tried to pick it up. 

As I start mentioning the modern features, my friend gets excited about the idea of a new and modern robot vacuum. However, he also explains that he is really technologically challenged and setting up such a sophisticated tool, other than a simple phone app, would really confuse him. Well, I said to him, that’s exactly what you have to do with getting you started with the robot. Using a phone app. And I start describing my experience with putting to work this device that I have. First, you take it out of the box along with the charging station. The charging station is actually a relatively small box, with two metal bands showing on the front, from where the robot will get the electricity for charging its battery. You place the charging station to be with its back against a wall, somewhere convenient for you to hide the robot when it is not operational, making sure that you have about one foot and a half from any wall. Then, take the robot and turn it upside down and push the radial brush which came also in the box, into the only squared axel you will see on the back of the vacuum. Then bring the robot to the charging station and position it so the 2 metal strips are touching the two metal strips on the charging station. You will hear the robot saying “Starting to charge” and an orange light blinking on the top. It is necessary to leave it in the charging station for a complete charge, when the blinking orange light will change into a continuously white light.

Now, go to your phone and download the app, login, confirm your email and you are ready to go.

On the app, you will see under the tab “Devices”, the Vacuum Cleaner, and tap on it. (you should know that actually you can give it a name you like. I named mine, for no particular reason, Sam. Just sounded good to me)

And this is all you have to do with regards of setting it up. Once is completely charged, you can go on the app, select the vacuum cleaner and press the “Vacuum” button, at the bottom of the screen. The robot will say (and do) “Start a quick mapping”. This will happen only the first time when you will use it. During the mapping part, the robot will start moving through the house, building a map of the house, which includes each room discovered during the mapping. Once the mapping is done, it will start vacuuming, following a plan which was build in the same time as the building of the map. The robot will do the cleaning very rigorously, covering the entire area of the floor, inch by inch, in basically one pass. All this time you will see the robot and the area that was cleaned, with the app installed on your phone.

I do recommend, when you clean the first time, as much as possible, to clear up the rooms of any objects on the floor. This way you allow the robot to do a more accurate mapping, then when they will be again on the floor, it will now to go around them. Occasionally, when cleaning, you can move away some objects so you can give the robot a chance to clean the areas occupied by the respective objects.

Once the cleaning is complete, with the model I have, you will need to manually empty the dust bin and eventually perform some maintenance tasks such as cleaning the HEPA pre-filter or removing the hair collected around the dust brush (my vacuum comes with a convenient tool specifically designed for this purpose).

There are other robots out there much more sophisticated than mine, which they empty themselves of the accumulated dust so you will need to do it less often than I do.

One last thing, this smart device will return to the charging station when it senses that it has less than 8% battery and will continue the work from where it left off after it gets charged.