[Electronics-Talk] robot vaccumes

Sat Apr 29 14:07:41 UTC 2023

We got one of the Roborock S series, and I agree with everything Aaron says. I recommend it.

--
Christopher (AKA CJ) =>÷
Chaltain at Outlook, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Aaron Spears via Electronics-Talk
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2023 8:56 PM
To: Drew Hunthausen via Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Aaron Spears <valiant8086 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] robot vaccumes

Hi.

So far, Roborock S6 Max. It talks, and the Roborock app is fairly accessible although you can't review the map with a screen reader.
Speaking of map, it does map the whole home using LiDAR, and it does a pretty nice and reliable job. There is another app, Mi Home, that can interact with it too, but it has to be set up one way or the other it won't work with both without being reset to work with what ever you want and starting over. There are other versions S4, s7 max, s8 pro etc. I can do everything except set map specific things like virtual no go zones or use the pin n go feature, etc. It also, at least ours, doesn't support naming rooms and letting you Alexa, clean the kitchen. You could set that up in the map using the app, but not accessibly. Other brands do let you assign room titles although I don't know about the accessibility. The Roborock is durable and reliable though and the app is plenty good enough to set the settings and cleaning modes and keep up with its maintenance suggestions and whatnot, at least on Android.

There is at least one Neato Bot Vac that doesn't do the app or anything and still does whole home mapping without internet of any kind, and without a touch screen. However some of he neatos do have touch screens but not all. Don't buy a bot vac that doesn't do whole home mapping, it's just not going to help you enough to have one that randomly turns around and wanders when it bumps into things and hopes it gets everywhere.

If you want to take a chance on app accessibility where noone I know has gone yet, try Tesvor and 360. 360 has a few Roborock competitors that are cheaper than Roborock and at least as nice. I know nothing about the app.

I don't know if the Shark IQ robots have an accessible app, and I don't know the state of accessibility for the Roomba, however Roomba has committed to being accessible in the past, so maybe.

There are two common ways to do whole home mapping, VSLAM and LiDAR.
LiDAR has a laser turret on top of the bot that spins a thin and invisible laser beam slowly in circles, usually under a protective cover in the middle of the bot on top. It measures the returning laser light emission  as it reflects off objects that do reflect such. Using tiny fractions of a second of accuracy in measuring the time to return it determines distances in all directions to anything. Normally LiDAR bots don't have cameras but not always. This means they don't have pictures of your home if that is a concern. Since LiDAR is its own light source, a blind person who doesn't care to have the rooms lit up won't have to worry about potential issues that could be a result of being too dark, which can sometimes affect VSLAM. LiDAR stands for Lighting Distance and Ranging.

VSLAM visual simultaneous localization and mapping, generally involves a camera that points upward toward the ceiling, and takes pictures and tries to match them with the existing map of such pictures to determine the bot's location. It does need some light to function. In general, LiDAR is more accurate than VSLAM but VSLAM works well too for most products that utilize it.

Neato are LiDAR and pretty much pioneered the idea of using it for robot vacuums. Most Roborocks are LiDAR navigated but not all. Roborock's s7 line contains at least one model that has object recognition camera that is used for obstacle recognition and avoidance (it can go around dog poop), but uses its LiDAR for navigation primarily.

Roomba, I believe are all VSLAM, but I am not sure of that. 360 has at least some LiDAR navigated bots, Tesvor also.

If you want mopping combined with the vacuum, Roborock is the most
common option to use, but the s7 and s8 are the first to really have a
mop worth having. The  s6 max has mopping but it's kind of useless. The
360 line does include some with mopping capability but I'm not up to
speed on how good they work. If you just want to follow our footsteps
but don't care about mopping, the s4 I believe is the same as the s6 max
but minus the mopping for quite a bit less money.

Our Roborock sucked up dog poop one day. It finished and went back to
the charger. It's not a wet dry vac, but it didn't hurt it. It had poop
stuck in the wheels and everything. We ended up spraying up in the wheel
wells with a water hose trying to get it to come out. We figured it was
ruined, but after a couple of days letting it sit and dry it still
worked ok and it didn't smell too bad. Later, it started turning right
when it tried to go and then erroring out. Come to notice, it wasn't
sitting level, the left side was on the floor but the right was raised a
little. The right wheel had something on top of the wheel in the wheel
well keeping it from going up all the way, and the friction of that
obstruction rubbing the top of the wheel was preventing it from turning,
and thus the problem with turning right and not being able to go anywhere.

I was able to get Roborock to send us a video describing how to replace
the wheels. We weren't trying to replace them, but the video with
sighted assistance of course helped me disassemble the bot enough to
clear some cotton that somehow had gotten on top of the wheel and the
bot is working fine since then, about 9 months later. It runs daily and
has been doing so for years.

Mom recently noted that it wasn't cleaning the dining room area at all,
just completely ignoring it. I went in and deleted the map after we had
fought with it for a while and then created a new map. It told me to let
it finish and not to pick it up. It then cleaned the whole house and
reconstructed the map. It did get stuck 3 times, I just pulled it out of
the predicaments without picking it up and used the clean button to make
it resume. It was at 20 percent battery power before it finished and it
went to the charger and then resumed once it made it up to 30 percent
charge, finishing the house just bearly with only 20 percent left again
before it returned to the charger with the map fully reconstructed. It
took 95 minutes on a brand new mapping run to do 898 square feet. Was on
max suction mode so the battery power was a little short or it would
have been faster.

The bot can usually add new discoveries to the map but I think someone
made a no go zone for the dining room at some point and then glitched
things out. I know that a couple years ago the idea of making it not run
in there was brought up to keep it from spending so much time twining
between all the chair legs.

Moving the docking station messes it up. It makes lots of silly mistakes
(like getting stuck under furniture that it had been successfully
circumnavigating prior to the move) for several runs after that until it
finally settles in again. It tries to learn where it tends to get stuck
and just avoids that. For instance it'll jam itself under our recliners
and then be unable to back out or turn around because the top of the bot
is being pressed down by the underside of the chair which has a slope on
it. But you just pull it out and make it resume and next time it won't
get stuck there.

Having a bot vac is not a hands-free solution. It still requires some
attention, but the right bot can definitely do most of the work all by
itself.

Cheers:
Aaron Spears, AKA Valiant8086 General Partner at Valiant Galaxy Associates "we make (VERY GOOD AUDIOGAMES) for the blind comunity" http://valiantgalaxy.com/

On 4/28/2023 6:27 PM, Drew Hunthausen via Electronics-Talk wrote:
> Hi list,
>
> What are the best/ accessible robot vaccumes that you have used? Thanks so
> much
>
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