Roomba (iRobot)

Roomba is a small disc-shaped robot that vacuums floors by itself. It was launched by iRobot in 2002 and became the first truly mass-market home robot.

How it works

Early Roombas had no map. They used simple rules and cheap sensors: bump sensors to feel walls, cliff sensors to avoid stairs, and a few behaviours such as spiral, follow the wall, and bounce off obstacles. By repeating these behaviours, the robot eventually covered the whole room, like mowing a lawn without a plan.

Newer models add cameras or lidar and build a map of the home, using SLAM to know where they have already cleaned.

Why it matters

Roomba showed that a robot does not need to be clever to be useful. A simple, cheap machine that does one boring job reliably can sell in huge numbers. This is a common lesson in robotics: success comes from a clear job and low cost, not only from advanced AI.

What goes wrong without sensors

Without cliff sensors, a robot vacuum would drive off the top step of a staircase. Without bump sensors, it would grind against furniture forever. Cheap sensors plus simple rules prevent most failures.

Learn from it

You can build a tiny version with an Arduino, two motors and a distance sensor. Try our first robot tutorial: the same sense, decide, act loop is inside a Roomba.