Rise of the iRobot...

This post is a bit off-topic, but, I felt I should share. Recently, I got an iRobot to clean the living room (Thanks! Tony). The kitties, Daisy and Chris, eyed the robot with suspicion, but, the robot was surprisingly quiet, so, the kitties were not as upset with the robot as they would have been with the vacuum cleaner. The robot crisscrossed the living room and ricocheted off the furniture in a mysterious pattern, but, somehow managed to do a very good job cleaning the living room. To keep the robot from wandering off into the kitchen, I placed a broom stick in front of the kitchen door as a barrier. Sure, I could have used a virtual wall, but, the broom stick was free and no batteries required.

After a few days, the kitties have learned where the robot can and can't go and have staked out viewing spots accordingly. Early on, the robot managed to sneak up on Chris and surprise her, but, lately, Chris has responded by trying out her patented mock charge on the robot in an attempt to intimidate the robot. Not surprisingly, the robot didn't seem to care. Daisy, for her part, likes to keep a line of sight on the robot while it is running, but, Daisy is a bit more laid back, so, as long as the robot doesn't interfere with her time in the sun, Daisy doesn't really care what the robot does.

I've heard about issues with robots mindlessly running through poop and smearing it around people's houses, but, we've always monitored the robot's interactions with the kitties, so, we haven't run into any issues along those lines. Generally speaking, our kitties are not really concerned about the robot and the robot has done a surprisingly good job while not causing any major issues.

Two minor issues did turn up during real-world operations. First, the robot will occasionally get itself stuck under a piece of furniture like the recliner or the coffee table. There is a critical height of about three inches that seems to cause issues if the robot comes in at just the right angle and gets itself wedged in so that its back wheels are partially off the floor, it will not be able to spin its way out of the situation. Second, the robot will occasionally become high-centered on the threshold for the front door if the front door is open.

By the way, the image for this post is Miss Monochrome with her iRobot.