The Robot Vacuum

The other day I was driving along down a quaint country road near my home and noticed something out of the corner of my eye in the middle of a large yard on my right. I tried to turn and look as I passed, but only caught a glimpse of what looked like a small disc like machine. I went a little further down the road but my curiosity had gotten the better of me, I turned around to go have a look. It was in fact, a device, wandering around these people's yard. A small disk-like appliance called a robot vacuum. Now, I did not stop and ask the owner's just exactly what this thing was doing in the yard, but I would imagine they had it out to automatically clean the grass clippings from the mowing they had done, or perhaps the device was attempting to escape and bound for world domination. Completely baffled I was though until I arrived back home to go searching for the conclusion as to what the thing even was.

The robot vacuum came onto the market in 2002 from a company called iRobot, the Roomba Robot Vacuum Cleaner. The autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner, able to find its way around a room, avoiding obstacles, cleaning the floor, entirely on its own. Amazing!

This is achieved by carrying the device to the room you wish it to clean and simply pressing a few buttons. The power button, and then the clean button. Then, the Roomba begins, spiraling out in its own pattern calculating and cleaning as it goes. There are tons of sensors all over the underside of the unit. The self-navigation capabilities of the robot vacuum are not limited to just detecting an object and cleaning around it, but there are also cliff-sensors which will keep the unit safe from tumbling down stairs. The cliff-sensor achieves its purpose by emitting an infrared signal directly at the floor and the instant the signal is not immediately received, the unit changes direction accordingly. Most units also come with wall sensors which allow you to setup up virtual boundaries for areas you do not wish your little cleaning buddy to venture into. Some units also come with a docking station, making it possible to never even need to touch the unit at all, allowing it to leave its charging station on its own, do the cleaning and return. Its dust bin however, does need to be emptied, which is something to consider as far as size when deciding to purchase a robot vacuum.

There has since been many advancements in the Roomba line of Robot Vacuums which have improved the efficiency and accuracy of the vacuums. Many have been given increasingly larger dust bins to allow longer intervals between having to touch the unit at all. The price you will find, directly reflects a units performance. The higher the price you pay the better a job it will do. Not to say that the reasonably priced units do not do their jobs but rather, the top dollar vacuums do actually reflect the price difference in performance. The only downside to a robot vacuum is in the fact that they tend to cover an area a few times and take a bit longer then you would to clean a room. This is typically though, a learning process for the unit and not much of a concern for consumers, after all its off on its own doing the job.

Gary enjoys writing and studying about integrative medicine. Not only does he enjoy writing about various health topics, you can also check out his latest websites on the Capresso Infinity coffee grinder along with bags for laptop.