{"id":344592,"date":"2021-09-26T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-26T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-roombas-cant-navigate-this-simple-rug-review-geek\/"},"modified":"2021-09-26T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-26T19:00:00","slug":"why-roombas-cant-navigate-this-simple-rug-review-geek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-roombas-cant-navigate-this-simple-rug-review-geek\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why Roombas Can\u2019t Navigate This Simple Rug \u2013 Review Geek"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Why Roombas Can\u2019t Navigate This Simple Rug \u2013 Review Geek”<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Karlis Dambrans \/ Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the years, iRobot Roomba vacuums have grown smarter and better able to navigate. But for the longest time, the weirdest navigation they ran into came from an unlikely source: carpets and rugs. With just the right pattern, older Roombas found themselves trapp<\/a>ed. And the reason is pretty simple.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t seen it before,\u00a0IBM researcher Dmitry Krotov demonstrated the problem well over on Twitter<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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I wish they had also created a diverse dataset of rugs so that it didn\u2019t confuse black strip<\/a>es with cliffs and I could finally get my entire house cleaned \ud83d\ude02 pic.twitter.com\/zgPza5pyYw<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Dmitry Krotov (@DimaKrotov) September 10, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As you can see, when older Roombas make their way onto dark carpets or rugs with dark borders, they can get stuck. If you have a connected app, the Roomba will ping you with warnings that it encountered a cliff. That\u2019s right; it thinks the dark portion of rugs and carpets are cliffs or stairs.<\/p>\n

A quick search on Twitter<\/a> reveals dozens of similar complaints in various scenarios, including moving from a wood floor to a dark solid color rug. In the worst-case scenario, as above, the Roomba can get onto the carpet only to find itself unable to leave.<\/p>\n

Thanks to a tweet<\/a> from iRobot research scientist Ben Kehoe, we know the problem and how the company solved it. And if you\u2019re guessing bad programing or machine learning gone awry<\/a>, that\u2019s not it at all. Instead, it\u2019s a hardware problem.<\/p>\n

Older Roombas used two pieces of hardware to avoid cliffs (or stairs). An LED to shine light down and a\u00a0photodiode to detect light reflected off the floor. If the diode detects light, then there must be floor beneath the Roomba. But if the light doesn\u2019t bounce back, then it\u2019s assumed the Roomba encountered a cliff. That\u2019s the initial solution iRobot chose for one simple reason: Those sensors are incredibly inexpensive. Any other software or hardware solution would have required more effort and money, not to mention failure scenarios.<\/p>\n

But you\u2019ll notice that the problem only happens on \u201colder\u201d Roombas. That\u2019s right, according to Kehoe, iRobot did devise an affordable solution to the problem. Specifically, the\u00a0i3+, i7+, s9+, and j7+ models all use a new sensor that better detects cliffs and does not throw false positives on rugs. Just look at this other Twitter user\u2019s video with the same carpet:<\/p>\n

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Hi @DimaKrotov<\/a> don\u2019t know you but apparently we have the exact same rug! My old roomba did the same as yours, but the new i7 I have seems to handle black on rugs a little better \ud83d\ude42 pic.twitter.com\/fLj7cZCOoy<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Scott Hicok (@scotthicok) September 22, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Of course, those are more expensive models, starting at $550 and only going up the line. But hopefully, the sensors will continue to drop in price and make their way to more affordable solutions. That might be a while, though. Kehoe explained it took years to devise the solution that finally worked.\n<\/p><\/div>\n