Picture from Time.com Roomba review. Roomba manufacturer site: iRobot.
Oh sure, it has an algorithm -- based on minefield robot research -- but it's still a vacuum cleaner. Or at least a kinda noisy carpet brush scrubber thing. Essentially, it's selling point is that, instead of lugging an annoying metal object with one or more centers of gravity, you sit on your ass watching Invader Zim and writing reviews that will cause people researching for vacuum cleaner gadgets to associate them with Dungeons and Dragons.
Algorithmic Intelligence: One interesting definition I read about intelligence is that, the better we understand it, the less intelligent it is. Chess AI, once the subject of international competitions, are now found in toys. Medical diagnosis applications are less research projects than everyday tools. Conversely, a robot with "common sense", the original goal of AI twenty-plus years ago, is still, at best, in its rudimentary phases. Essentially, this paragraph is a long-winded and highly inaccurate opinion that consumer-ready robots are less general-purpose androids than highly specific products whose algorithms shouldn't be surprising when described as...
Roomba's Algorithm: A drunk blind man walking in random straight lines with a dustbuster. The algorithm in the booklet says it goes in an outward spiral until it bumps into something, then goes off in a random direction. (Various IR sensors, bumbers, and physical doodads keep it from falling down stairs and otherwise damaging itself.) An algorithm **entirely** different from a "common sense" way of vacuuming, unless you partially vacuum a room before going to another one, vacuum over the same spot five or so times, and bump into things. (Although it comes with electronic units that will provide "virtual walls", you can use other sophisticated techniques like "shutting the door and not letting it out".) It does not use the vacuuming algorithm I'm familiar with: mentally map out a room, including obstacles, and vacuum each area once in a gridlike manner.
Tidying: It's actually very good that the Roomba does **not** map the room. Or at least does not map the room without making continuous updates. Unless you include vacuuming as one of your "couple" activities, you probably vacuum in two phases: tidy up the room, then vacuum. With the Roomba doing the vacuuming, it's less of an effort to move something out of the way (as opposed to the annoying chore of turning off the vacuum, putting it down without breaking something, moving something out of the way, picking up the vacuum cleaner again, turning it on, resuming vacuuming, and other tasks that would make this parenthetical statement even longer) and put it back again. You can, of course, tidy and vacuum one area of the house at a time. And, yes, you should be aware of how much tidying you before vacuuming in evaluating this product. Roomba sure won't do it.
Thoroughness: Something entirely overlooked in evaluating robotic common sense is the complexity and sophistication of mimicking the human trait of laziness. Not only would this involve the ability to evaluate relative cleanliness ("Well, it was cleaner than it was before"), it would include both self-deception ("I guess it looks clean."), as well as the ability to persuade ("Yes, I did too CLEAN it!"). Being too stupid to only clean an area once, the Roomba will obliviously clean an area several times. Being physically smaller than a traditional vacuum cleaner (and traditional male stuck doing house chores) it's able to go in areas most people don't vacuum: under furniture, under cabinet doors, under table legs, around office furniture, over carpet and bathroom mats (with bemusing results), under electric and cable television cords (not a good idea), and so on. Certainly cleaning dust bunnies seems obvious, but it wasn't apparent to myself until I saw the Roomba in action how much of my apartment I wouldn't have vacuumed myself. I should be pretty obvious that, between its willingness to clean a clean area several times, and its ability to clean dirty areas you'd skip, the Roomba takes considerably longer (five times according to one article I read) than doing it manually.
Maintenance: Unfortunately, the money spent on this vacuum cleaner doesn't go into a product tolerant of negligent users. Besides the Roomba's dust bin, even short-haired males will have to pick out the god-knows-what stringy things tangled in the brushes (and wipe the sensors) "every ten uses". (No doubt more if you have animals in the house.) Probably the good news is that the Roomba will do its major cleaning the first time you use it. Probably the bad news is...
Makes a Great Christmas Gift: ...if you don't mind providing the technical support of cleaning out the brushes. Certainly $250 divided by the number of old people in the house and who are difficult to shop for may be a good price, but, rest assured, these people with both college degrees and the ability to raise yourself may claim to be unable to remove the friendly yellow tabs necessary to clean out the Roomba.
Of course, all that means is that you'll now have an excuse to take home and borrow the Roomba to vaccuum up your place.
