Does a Roomba Remember the Room Layout?

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Gained early experience with automation technology in the private and industrial sector, can turn his living room into a movie theater with one voice command and is the owner of this website. He is happy to share his accumulated experience with every new article.

Which Roomba Models have which Navigation Options?

The Roomba S-Series*: Roomba’s S Series is one of the most modern and advanced vacuum cleaner robots in the world. A completely new feature of these models is the automatic emptying system. With regard to navigation, the possibility of imprint mapping, as well as specifically definable protective areas with the most modern sensors available, should be mentioned.

The Roomba I Series*: The new imprint technology was introduced for the first time in this series. This means that robots of the I-Series will also get to know the floor plan during their first trips through the home. Then you can define areas and have them cleaned specifically. But even with these models, additional protected areas can be defined into which the robot will not enter.

The Roomba 900 Series*: The iRobot Home App can also be used to automatically create a map for the 900 series. The robot thus remembers in which areas it has already vacuumed and which still have to be processed.

The Roomba e-Series*: Roomba’s e-Series is specially designed for pet owners. Therefore, the focus is on the removal of dirt and animal hair and less on skillful navigation. But a particular highlight are the Dirt Detect sensors, which enable Roomba to detect heavily soiled areas in the home and thus clean them more thoroughly.

The Roomba 600 Series*: The Roomba 600 series models have been developed for the smaller wallet. Of course, some special extras have to be omitted in order to be able to guarantee a favorable price. Accordingly, the 600 series has no special navigation systems integrated, which can remember the floor plan of the apartment.

Other Roomba series: Since Roomba vacuum cleaner robots have been around for 17 years now, there are of course many other series, but they are no longer available in stores. Most of these models do not have any special navigation extras. However, since some of them are compatible with the iRobot Home App, additional functions can be used with optional extras. This includes above all the so-called iRobot Lighthouse Virtual Wall*. These are small towers that can improve the robot’s navigation in a targeted way – alternatively, however, they can also block certain areas for the vacuum cleaner.

How does iRobot’s Lighthouse Virtual Wall work?

Older and cheaper Roomba models do not include automatic mapping and targeted navigation. However, the good news is that if your Roomba device can connect to the WiFI, you can also connect it to the iRobot Home app.

This also allows you to use the Lighthouse Virtual Wall towers from iRobot*, which have to be purchased separately.

These towers have several possibilities of use:

Use as Lighthouse: Here the robot is shown with signals where passages/doors to other rooms or areas of the apartment are, which are difficult to hit.
Use as Virtual Wall: A barrier up to just under 3 meters long is created here, which the robot cannot cross. This allows doors or staircases to be blocked in a targeted manner.
Use as a halo: A circular barrier of 1.2 meters in diameter is created here, with the Lighthouse Tower representing the center of this circle. This excludes a specific area from cleaning. This can, for example, be very useful for the feeding area of pets.

The Lighthouse

If a Lighthouse Virtual Wall tower is used as a lighthouse, it should show the vacuum cleaner robot where more rooms are waiting for cleaning. The Roomba will first clean the room where its home base is located.

After a certain cleaning time (usually a maximum of 25 minutes) it heads for the nearest lighthouse and crosses the passage marked in this way. Now the area behind the lighthouse is cleaned (also for a maximum of 25 minutes), then we drive to the next lighthouse and continue according to the same principle.

If the robot’s battery is exhausted, it drives – guided through the lighthouses – back to its starting base.

In order to guarantee the best possible cleaning process, some points should be observed when placing lighthouses:

Both the Home Base and the lighthouses send signals for navigation. These can influence each other. You should, therefore, make sure that the towers and the home base are not too close to each other.
The towers can be used in different modes. If they are to serve as lighthouses, the switch must be set to “Lighthouse”.
The towers shall each be placed at one end of a passageway or door. The front (marked by the iRobot logo) points to the other end of the door or passageway (e.g. the door frame). The robot will always pass at a short distance from the tower (on the front) and thus hit the passage in a targeted manner.
You can set the size of the passage on the device in order to better signal the robot in which area a safe ride is possible.
When setting up the towers, be aware of how long the battery life of your Roombas is. Because in each area the robot will work in about 25 minutes. This also results in an approximate size, which should be marked by the lighthouses.
The battery life also determines the maximum number of areas to be processed. Usually, iRobot recommends not to define more than three lighthouses, i.e. four areas in total with the Home Base.

The Virtual Wall or the Halo

Basically, the Virtual Wall works the same way as the “Lighthouse” mode. Only instead of a safe area for the passage, a wall is symbolized here. Thus a passage is purposefully closed and kept impassable. The following points need to be followed when using as a virtual wall:

The switch of the device must be set to the “Virtual Wall” mode.
The size setting switch reflects the length of the blockade. At the highest setting, an area of 2.4 meters in length can be blocked.
In this mode, the tower needs also be placed at one end of the desired blockade and point the front (iRobot logo) to the other end.
Even when used as a virtual wall, the towers and the home base can influence each other if they are placed too close to each other.
If a tower is used to create a blockade as a halo, this has also be set on the device. Now the tower is the center of a 1.2 meter circle of a barrier, through which the robot can not drive.

The vSLAM Technology

In combination with the iRobot Home App, some models can create a map of the environment using vSLAM technology.

The sensors record up to 230,400 data points. The virtual map created in this way is used by Roomba to remember during a cleaning process which areas have already been cleaned and which are still to be cleaned.

Best of all, you don’t have to do anything great here – your Roomba does it all by itself and does a lot of the work for you.

The disadvantage of this, however, is that this mapping is not stored, which means that targeted cleaning cannot be planned for further journeys.

The Imprint Mapping

If you have a Roomba model that has imprint mapping, you should definitely use this feature. This allows you to map your apartment in the best possible way, to navigate your robot easily, and to create perfect cleaning plans for larger apartments and several robots at the same time.

To use Imprint Mapping, you need to do the following:

Connect your Roomba to the WiFI.
Connect a mobile device (mobile phone, tablet, etc.) to the same WiFI.
Start the iRobot Home App on this device. Now the app is automatically linked to the robot. You can now perform numerous functions.
Start the robot for the first time with the Clean function. You will now be asked if you want to use the intelligent imprint mapping. Your answer is yes.
Now the robot cleans your apartment. Using the already explained vSLAM technology, a map of the apartment is created again, which is now also saved.
Make sure that the robot travels through all areas of your home. If necessary, carry it through doors into hard-to-reach rooms.
When the recording of the map is finished, you will be notified via App. You now have a map of your apartment, which you can access via the app using “Clean / Imprint”.
On this map, you can divide the rooms into areas. Each of these areas can now be targeted by your Roomba.
In this way up to 10 imprint maps can be created. These can also be combined without any problems.
If a robot is to clean the entire apartment, you must select “all rooms” for the planned cleaning. If you only want it to edit one or more areas, select them from the map.
Thus perfect cleaning plans can be created. No matter whether a robot cleans different areas daily or several robots together the complete area (divided into different areas per robot) – nowadays a vacuum cleaner robot cannot have a better navigation system!

Of course, the individual maps and areas can also be edited, deleted or combined afterwards. Even if you move, your Roomba is not restricted. It’s just a matter of learning the map of your new home again in order to proceed with the smart navigation.

Protective Areas

The iRobot Home App in combination with the Imprint maps can also be used to easily define protection areas. In this way, certain zones can be defined to which the robot has no access. This can be used to protect areas with fragile items, for example, or to give your pets a safe zone without the nuisance of Roomba.

To define protection areas, just go to the room plan and add the protection area. These are always treated as a scalable square. It is important to enlarge the area a little and to play it safe.

Despite the latest technology and software, Roomba always needs a short reaction time to push back from the (invisible) barriers. It is advisable to test the protection zone specifically in order to create the best compromise between the protection zone and the cleaning area.

The Dirt Detect Technology

Dirt Detect technology is not a real navigation system, but it can be useful for detecting heavily soiled areas in the home.

This is because special sensors on the underside of the Roombas not only detect different floor coverings – and can thus adjust the cleaning process accordingly – but also when the floor is particularly dirty.

If this is the case, these areas are cleaned more intensively than would normally be the case. This means that even cheaper Roomba models can provide perfect cleaning.

The Chaos Principle

All vacuum cleaner robots that do not yet have a sophisticated navigation system work according to the chaos principle.

This also includes some of the cheaper and older Roomba models from iRobot. The chaos principle means that the robot always moves in a certain direction – until it encounters an obstacle.

From this “rebounding” the direction is completely randomly changed. This means that it is a combination of luck and time whether the vacuum cleaner robot finds its way through an open door into another room. These robots are usually designed to clean only one or two rooms.

In the operating instructions it is indicated for which area in how many rooms the battery power is designed. In smaller apartments this principle can be quite sufficient. If the robot cannot find its way to another room, it can simply be lifted up and carried into the room.

A point, which contradicts the idea of vacuum cleaners, which can do everything on their own – but is compensated by a low price.

Attention: When installing electronic equipment, please be sure to observe the manufacturer’s safety instructions. You have to take care of your own safety. The information on this site only helps you to learn.
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