Owners of robovac systems will swear that their robotic cleaning assistants do an excellent job and are well worth the money. These autonomous systems work quite well as long as you do not have a four-legged, tail-wagging, and sporadically pooping member in the house because as soon as you do, you realize the risk of letting the robotic systems go about their merry jobs. If you are still not sure, what we are talking about, just check this video below.
Over the years, companies have launched cleaners that they claim are smart enough not to create such a mess. But pioneers of the robovac systems, iRobot, have now launched the newest version of the cleaner, Roomba j7+, that they guarantee is ‘poop-proof’, The Verge reported.
To ensure that you take the ‘leap of faith’ with this product, the company has enhanced the machine’s ‘vision’ by mounting a camera on top. It then taught the robot to identify poop in the nooks and crannies of homes. The team spent many hours creating fake Play-Doh poop structures and even has a database of its images on which its AI trained, founder Colin Angle told Verge.
Along with poop, the robot can now even recognize wires, socks, shoes, and headphones. When in doubt, it even prompts the owner via its connected app, to know if it sees a new fixture. This does not mean that you have to watch over your Roomba on the phone every day. The Roomba can mark areas crowded with wires as ‘no-clean zones’ and ensure that your appliances stay intact when you return home.
The Roomba j7+ is now available in the US and Canada at a hefty price tag of $849. This includes a base station that can collect up to 60 days of dirt. The company has made improvements to the design, given more control buttons, and simplified onboarding via Bluetooth.
The company also promises free software upgrades for its customers like Version 3.0 of its iRobot Genius, its navigation, and control software. Available for free to other Roomba owners, the upgrade offers improved mapping capabilities, cleaning time estimates, ‘Quiet Mode’ when heading to or returning from jobs, and the “Clean while I’m Away” function. The latter needs you to grant access to your phone’s location to the Roomba and every time you leave the house, the cleaner will spring into action.
If you would like to see them in action, just watch this video.
Also, you still need to clean up the doody!