The Roomba vacuum cleaner is made and sold by the company iRobot. The Roomba was released in 2002 with updates and new models released in 2003, 2004, and so on. These days, millions of them have been sold, making it the most successful and popular robotic vacuum cleaner thus far.

Accessories

1. Remote control - This allows you to control the Roomba remotely.

2. Schedular - This allows you to program your Roomba to clean house on your schedule, even if you are out. The schedular can also update a pre-2.1 Roomba robot to the 2.1 software.

3. Homebase - This is where the Roomba will automatically return for recharging.

4. Virtual wall - This is used for keeping the Roomba out of certain areas.

5. OSMO - This is a dongle that attaches to the serial port of the Roomba.

Description

The Roomba is a disc, 13 inches in diameter and less than 4 inches high. A large contact sensing bumper is mounted on the front half of the unit, with an infrared sensor located at the top front center. A carrying handle is fitted at the top of it as well. Depending on the model Roomba you select, it can come with one or two infrared transmitter units.

The first and second generation Roomba models needed to be told the size of the room through the use of three small buttons, although this is now no longer required with newer Roomba generations.

The Roomba operates with internal nickel metal hyrdide batteries and requires being recharged on a regular basis from a wall plug, although the newer generations have a home base where they will automatically find and go to when they need to charge themselves.

Using the newer generations of Roomba consists of carrying it wherever you would like to start, pressing the power button, then pressing either clean, spot, or max.

Whenever the clean, spot, or max button is pressed, the Roomba will pause for second or two and then begin work. The contact bumper on the machine will detect bumping into walls and furniture, and the virtual walls will limit the Roomba to the areas that you desire. There are also 4 infrared sensors on the bottom that will prevent the Roomba from falling offer of ledges or down the steps.

Unlike the Electrolux models, the Roomba doesn't map out the rooms they are cleaning, as they instead rely on bumping into objects or walls to map things out. The design is based on MIT technology that robots should be like insects and equipped with simple controls mechanisms tuned to their environments.

After a little bit of time, the Roomba will begin to sing. If it detects a homebase, it will try to return to it. At that point, you simply remove the dust bin from the rear of the robot and empty it into a trash can.

Keep in mind that the Roomba isn't designed for deep pile carpet. It is however, low enough to go under your bed and most other furniture. If at any time it senses that it has become stuck, it will no longer sense the floor underneath it, it will stop and begin to sing until you come and find it.

If you are tired of vacuuming and simply don't want to do it anymore, a Roomba vacuum cleaner will be a great investment. You can sit back and relax, or go out and do things while the Roomba does all of the vacuuming for you. There is nothing easier than having a Roomba around, as it will help to simplify things like never before.