Robot vacuum makes war on cat hair

The robots are coming. Every week, it seems, announcements hail a coming era of personal robots: machines that will ingratiate themselves into our homes by liberating us from despised chores like folding fitted sheets.

Vacuuming is one of those chores. And for that, help is already here in the Roomba by iRobot. More than 10 years ago, I bought the first-generation version of the Roomba, intrigued by the algorithm that sent it scooting automatically around the room, entertaining my cat along the way. But the vacuum didn’t clean very well, and when the battery no longer held a charge, the expensive cat toy found its way down to the basement where I imagine it still sits.

The latest Roomba, the 880, will probably not share that fate. The machine, which has the same hockey-puck profile of the earliest Roombas, not only cleans floors as well as an upright or canister vacuum cleaner, it may actually do a superior job on pet hair.The algorithm still sends the robot careening around a room in what seems like a random pattern. When it comes across a bit of dirt, the little machine focuses on the spot, twirling around in a spiral until it licks the problem.

A little spinning brush under the Roomba whisks the dirt into two rotors that never seem to get tangled with hair and string, unlike many of the most expensive vacuum cleaners. (The trick? No bristles on the rotors.) The machine signals when the dirt bin is full, and when I was alerted I found a large clump of cat hair and dirt inside. Very satisfying.

The Roomba emits a pleasant hum, not the high-pitched whine of most vacuums. Aside from it gently thumping into table legs and walls, you get used to it working in the background as you go about more important tasks. And like the previous generations of Roombas, you don’t need to worry about it crashing down stairs. Sensors stop it from going over the edge.

The machine comes with two pillars that block off portions of the room that you don’t want cleaned. The pillars shoot off an infrared beam that acts as a fence, maybe to wall off a precious vase or the pet bowls on the floor. In my experience, the Roomba never grabbed carpet tassels, which can’t be said of many regular vacuum cleaners I’ve tried. (The iRobot engineers added what they call “anti-tassel mode,” by making the rotors momentarily go in reverse if it detects a cord or carpet fringe.) And at 3.6 inches high, the machine can slip under most furniture, a chore that with a regular vacuum cleaner would force you to bend and twist.

It’s also easy to schedule the robot, so the machine can work every day without you raising a finger. You can see the house getting cleaner. Every day there is less debris in the bin so you know it is working. The robot returns by itself to its recharging station when it runs low on power. It docks itself, beeps out a little salute and prepares itself for its next bout of cleaning. IRobot makes other consumer robots, like a new floor scrubbing device, the Scooba, and one that cleans roof gutters of leaves and debris, the Looj. 

IRobot also does something that I rarely see in consumer electronics today, and certainly not in a Dyson, a machine honoured for its great design: You can easily take apart its products and replace modules that fail. You can even replace the Roomba’s battery, which iRobot says is good for about three years.

But this robot is not yet perfect. The 880 has a remote control so I can focus the Roomba’s attention if necessary - sometimes it gets a mite confused - but the vacuum lacks a connection to the Internet so I can’t schedule it via a mobile device from the office. (I can control my thermostat that way, why shouldn’t I be able to manage my robots?)

And here is the real downside to our little robot friend: its $700 (Rs 43,876) price tag. When a Dyson costs $400 (Rs 25,072) or $500 (Rs 31,340), that seems a little steep. Also, I’d still have to own another vacuum cleaner and use it on occasion to clean tight corners, the stairs, couches and chairs, and the spots between the furniture that the Roomba can’t reach. 

But oh, did I enjoy the extra free time that the Roomba provided. And the truth is, when I used the Roomba every day, very few dust bunnies accumulated in corners. And I could use a cheap hand-held to do the stairs and couch. The Roomba is light (8.4 pounds) and portable, so I could move it from one floor to the other each day without much trouble.And did I mention that it works fabulously as a cat toy? Welcome, robots.