Ok, this may not be directly related to Free and Open Source Software, but it does involve computer hardware and is definitely geeky.
My wife is on the road a lot with her new job and returned on Friday from an extended trip. One of my duties while she is gone is to vacuum the floors. Suffice it to say, I neglected that duty for quite a long time. During the ensuing tumult, she was inspired to resolve the problem with the only method that would ensure I would perform my vacuuming duties satisfactorily: robotics. Vacuuming floors is a 20th century method of psychological torture designed to make one hate pets and abhore shod feet in an enclosed space. We have two dogs, a Jack Russell and fox terrier mix named Pedro and a chocolate Labrador named Fuji. The hair they shed form "Night of the Lepus"(1)-sized dust bunnies. I've used a portable blowtorch on them, but the resulting stench precludes me from using that method too often. My wife had either seen or heard about a robotic vacuum cleaner called the Roomba from the company iRobot (http://www.irobot.com). I recall that it was mentioned on Slashdot, but either I imagined that it wouldn't work or there was someother article I was more interested in reading. The Roomba looks like a flat disc about 40 centimeters in diameter. It uses a rechargable nickel-cadium battery that requires about 12 hours of charge time, although there is a rapid (2.5 hrs) recharger available. The Roomba also comes with a "virtual wall" unit that shoots a adjustable length beam of some kind to restrict the Roomba from crossing it. The instructions recommend a full charge the first time it is used, then a complete discharge of the battery before recharging it a second time. Completely discharging the unit required about 30 cycles of powering it up and letting it run until it stops and beeps to say the battery needs to be recharged. The instructions state the Roomba will run about 1.5 to 2 hours per charge. The Roomba requires human intervention to empty its dust compartment. You can tell this happens when it stops picking up dust or it starts "pooping" dust bunnies. Emptying is easily accomplished without picking the unit up. You simply stop the unit by turning it off, release a lock mechanism, then remove and empty the dust container. It is reinserted in the Roomba with a tactile click. As the floor hadn't been vacuumed in a while, the Roomba required emptying a few times after a few minutes each, but after the bulk of the hair was picked up it ran for much longer before requiring emptying. The Roomba uses a room coverage algorithm that operates in the following manner: it starts moving in a spiral for a few turns then goes in a straight line until it hits an obstacle then it detects the edges of the obstacle until it either circles it or hits another obstacle. Once it defines the edges of the obstacle it goes in another straight line. It can also detect walls and follow them. Once the perimeter is defined, it traverses the room orthogonally. The Roomba "remembers" the layout of the room in order to completely cover it while vacuuming. It is recommended that you prepare the floor as you would before vacuuming in the old 20th century manner. Pick up anything that could get tangled up in the Roomba's wheels, like tasseled carpets, network cables or det cord. The Roomba has an edge sweeping arm on the right side that consists of two small brushes mounted on the ends of a rubber arm that spins. It provides the Roomba with the ability to follow a wall but not touch while getting the dust between the Roomba and the wall. The optimal strategy is to use the Roomba while you are not at home. As I mentioned before, once the floor is clean of the bulk of dust, the Roomba should run until it stops for recharging before requiring emptying. In this manner, you can vacuum your floor everyday that you are not home. Summary: We are very happy with the Roomba. It does a really good job in the area we used it in which consists of a living room, kitchen, dining room, entrance hallway and main hallway which is about 1600+ sq feet. It is really satisfying to see the promise of robotics technology coming into fruition as an actual commercial product that works. Get one, you will benefit from the time saved and the dust bunnies extinguished. It costs about $200 in appliance stores or on-line, and there are more advanced models to choose from. The Roomba I reviewed is the basic model. (1) "Night of the Lepus" - 70's horror movie about gigantic mutant rabbits. (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0069005/) -- John Hebert System Engineer I T Group, Inc. 225-922-4535
