[Electronics-Talk] Robotic Vacuum Cleaners Info Request

Sun Dec 4 04:15:52 UTC 2022

Hi.

We found with the Roborock s6 we have we can take the bearings off the 
brushroll easily enough, which makes it easier to get the hair and 
threads off. Does Roomba have that too?

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 10:39 PM, Danielle Ledet via Electronics-Talk wrote:
> 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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>