[Electronics-Talk] Robotic Vacuum Cleaners Info Request

Sun Dec 4 03:39:24 UTC 2022

I Just bought a Roomba 694 and love it so far. I find that if it
vacuums the carpet the brushes are clear of dog hair. My dog sheds
alot and it does a good juob of it. If I just let it vacuum the hard
wood floors I have to get in there and pull out the hair from the
brushes. It works with the Wi-Fi.

On 12/3/22, Aaron Spears via Electronics-Talk
<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi.
>
>
> If you need a cheap one with whole home mapping, Tesvor has some. Next
> up prise-wise with whole home mapping, 360's s6 and similar models.
> Neither of these models are tested for accessibility by me. We have and
> like a Roborock s6 and like it. If we had it to do again we would
> probably get the Roborock s7 max if we could afford it. They are
> expensive. You can get a cheaper Roborock S4 which is just as nice as
> the Roborock s6 but without the mopping feature which, on the s6 is kind
> of a gimmick anyway. Mopping is better on the s7max.
>
>
> Roborock are compatible with the Xiaomi Mi Home app if you prefer it,
> but their own Roborock app is usable except for marking up the map on
> your own. Roborock maps the home every time you run it by traveling
> around the parameters and then it fills in each room on the created map
> as it goes. If you schedule a run you can easily enough tell it which
> map you want to use. You have just enough usability to be able to save a
> map and call it up for the scheduler later. More useful if you have a
> multiroom house or are moving it from house to house. You can set it
> down somewhere and start cleaning and it will try to map its area and
> turn itself off near to where you started it. This works especially well
> for a room if you close the doors or put obstructions to keep it in
> there. It'll understand that it's cleaned everything and while it may
> try at first to find the charger when that happens, it'll figure out
> that it can't reach it and turn off roughly where it was when you
> started it. It is not the best for manually moving it around and
> expecting it to run just in a room. 360's machine supposedly can
> understand a room and avoid leaving the room if you use room cleaning
> mode. While Roborock has a room cleaning mode, it will still exit a room
> if not blocked off, it just changes the cleaning behavior. Room clean is
> also not available as a physical button, only in the app. Roborock would
> probably work with no WiFi if you needed to. It builds the map onboard
> before attempting to clean. I think the downside to that would be that
> it can't learn to stay out of tricky areas. After getting stuck a few
> times in the same places ours with internet access like it has will tend
> to get skiddish and avoid those same mistakes. If we move the charging
> dock though we have to have it redo the map and it has a lot of trouble
> for a week or so until things settle down again.
>
>
> If you notice that a scheduled clean doesn't seem to be including a
> certain room, it could be that it missed that room the last time you
> manually started it using the cleaning button or that room was closed
> off. Sometimes it will add the new room to the stored map in the
> scheduled run scenario but not always. Best way to get it added is to
> start a clean manually using the clean button on the machine. It'll run
> with no assumptions then. Some people report success placing it in the
> room it misses and starting a clean using the clean button with the door
> open so it will wander out of there and hopefully add it to the map in
> the process.
>
>
> Couple of things to keep in mind.
>
> 1. don't get a dumb robot unless you have a tiny house or trailer or
> just want it to do one or two rooms. Dumb robots aren't aware of their
> location and just turn around when they reach an obstruction. They're
> not absolutely terrible, but in my opinion, as a blind person, I don't
> want one that's not systematically making an attempt to get every inch
> of the floor as best as possible. The cheap ones turn at sometimes
> random angles and just go off willy nillie hopefully getting everything.
> As it stands, they tend to always miss certain spots but meanwhile run
> over the same spot they just did a couple of times. Furthermore, they
> don't know where their charger is, and just wander around until they can
> see its infrared beam and then hope they can line up with the charger.
>
>
> Robots with whole home mapping actually create a digital understanding
> of the layout of your home, and are able to figure out where they are
> and actually color in, litterally, the whole map as they go. They're
> aware of every inch they've already cleaned and are actually able to
> make a bee-line for places they haven't covered yet. You can start most
> units anywhere in the home that have already mapped it and they will be
> able to ascertain where you put them and can account for it. Ours will
> find the dock even if we set it on the other end of the house and hit
> the dock button. It even can work in some really obscure situations like
> if it's only a few feet from the dock but has to make a giant c shaped
> path around in completely the wrong direction and turn a few corners and
> thread between some furniture to reach the dock.
>
>
> 2. Between all the available mapping methods, I highly recommend LiDAR.
> Light imaging distance and ranging. It's a laser turret that spins and
> measures distances to obstructions in all directions all the time. LiDAR
> can't see glass, so sometimes if you have a glass storm door they will
> get confused thinking they should be able to go through that doorway.
> Ours has gotten stuck on the doorstep a few times and been unable to get
> off it again until someone drug it. Otherwise however, LiDAR is
> exceptionally accurate and works just fine for blind people with no
> lights on in pitch black weather. LiDAR also can't understand that a
> thin sheet won't actually be an obstruction, but VSLAM can encounter
> that issue too. You just hope the robot can gently approach what it
> thinks is an obstruction annd see if the bumper on the front triggers an
> impact or not. Some units do that and some are more tentative.
>
>
> VSLAM visual simultaneous localization and mapping is usually the form
> of a camera on the top of the robot facing upward toward the ceiling. It
> tries to recognize things above the robot in order to determine its
> location. It can still work in low light for some robots but they do
> have more trouble in very dark areas. VSLAM is more common with Roomba
> and Hoover. Neato, Roborock, 360 and Tesvor use LiDAR. Theoretically,
> VSLAM is lower cost, but it doesn't show up that way when you buy the
> product.
>
>
> There are some variations on this, like roborock's s7 max's combination
> of LiDAR and a couple of visual cameras that are forward facing and can
> recognize things like poop that should not be vacuumed, etc. There's an
> improved version of the dumb robot that uses higher precision gyro,
> possibly a compass, and some trickery to try to do whole home mapping
> with the cheaper parts. However, Tesvor's whole home mapping is in that
> price range and so is kind of hard to argue with.
>
>
>
> All of the models can suck up cables. We had a Deabot that tried to
> account for the issue by placing wires every inch and a half over the
> surface of the brush roll that would in theory prevent a cable from
> getting up in there, but it still happened. Our roborock sucks up socks
> and then proceeds to run around with a brush roll that can't spin.
> Sometimes it will trip an error other times it won't. It's not a matter
> of if but when something like this will happen. Our roborock S6 sucked
> up a bunch of dog poop. We've since had it apart  and discovered there
> wasn't that much wrong in the wheels other than a thick piece of cotton
> that somehow got above one of them and was creating friction on that
> wheel so that it couldn't spin and thus causing the robot to just spin
> around in circles when it wanted to go. It's been vacuuming every day
> for 2 years and still works well. You are a little too late to get a
> good deal, these things get crazy good deals on Black Friday. However,
> if you don't mind a used one, Amazon Renewed has some interesting
> offers. They used to have the exceptionally friendly Roomba 980 for like
> $120, they cost about $1000 new.
>
>
> However, the normal cost of Roborock S4 is around $400 and if there's
> any sale at all you'll be into the $300 range. the 360 company has the
> s6 for under $400. If you want to try a Tesvor they have whole home
> mapping for under $200 or right around it. Neato has some lower cost
> options, and all of Neato's machines have LiDAR whole home mapping.
> However some Neato units have a touch screen. You are probably good if
> you choose the Neato that doesn't have internet connection, but I don't
> know how accessible it is to set a schedule for that machine.
>
>
> Keep us in the loop.
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> Cheers:
> Aaron Spears, AKA Valiant8086 General Partner at Valiant Galaxy Associates
> "we make (VERY GOOD AUDIOGAMES) for the blind comunity"
> http://valiantGalaxy.com
>
> On 12/3/2022 2:50 PM, Sherry Gomes via Electronics-Talk wrote:
>> I have a roomba, level 9 series. I am not fond of it actually, but I have
>> hard wood floors though my house and a dog that sheds a lot. I don't like
>> how loud it is when doing its job. And it's a sound that hurts my ears. It
>> does an okay job, for the most part, but I often have to pick it up and
>> get the dog hair out of its wheels and rollers. Also, once it tried to
>> suck up electric cords which it shouldn't do. I can't find what they call
>> barrier strips or bumps for it which tells it to stay out of certain
>> areas.
>>
>> The app is pretty accessible, except that I need sighted help to mark up
>> the map. If I could get that done, I could set it just to vacuum the
>> living room, for instance, which is actually where most of my dog's hair
>> is! Lol.
>>
>> I had another brand originally, called Trifo. I liked it better. It was
>> definitely quieter, and it seemed to do a bit better job on the dog hair.
>> But though several of us tried, we could never get it to link up to its
>> own app, let alone to Alexa, which it was supposed to be able to do.
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of
>> Rebecca Degeorge via Electronics-Talk
>> Sent: Saturday, December 3, 2022 11:34 AM
>> To: electronics-talk at nfbnet.org
>> Cc: Rebecca Degeorge <rebeccadegeorge09 at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [Electronics-Talk] Robotic Vacuum Cleaners Info Request
>>
>>       I am considering purchasing one of these, and want for it to be
>> accessible and also able to pick up dog hair. Any recommendations would be
>> appreciated.
>>
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>>
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>
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