We bought a iRobot Roomba Vacuuming Robot last year to try to try to help keep the copious quantities of dog hair in our house under control. These are the ultimate in geekly gadgets and they are simply amazing to watch in action. They use simple algorithms that ensure they clean the entire room (such as following walls, spirals, and randomly changing direction after bumping into something); however, they are by no means efficient in how they do so. In fact they hit some areas of the room many times and other areas only once or twice. They are mesmerizing and hilarious to watch!

For the most part our Roomba works very hard and she cleans reasonably well. It’s not a perfect clean by any stretch, but it’s virtually effortless on our part, and we’ve had very few problems with her. Until yesterday anyway. I had some company coming over for dinner last night so I fired the little dude up in the afternoon in order to give the living area a quick once over. The poor thing couldn’t figure out how to make forward progress. She just stayed in the middle of the room, spinning in circles. Her sad cry for help at the end is rather pathetic…

I have put in a support ticket on the iRobot website and they have been very helpful so far. The initial indication is that one of the proximity sensors on the front has failed. Fortunately the entire robot is modular and each component can be easily removed for cleaning or replacement. Many people figured this out and have learned how to hack their Roombas to do fun and crazy things. I haven’t tried any of these hacks yet, but maybe someday…

Sep 22 UPDATE – iRobot tells me that Roomba is dead and that I need to replace her. RIP Roomba.

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