How Do I Map My House with the iRobot Roomba?

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If you’ve got your eye on a new iRobot Roomba robot vacuum, you already know it can sweep or vacuum your whole home. While you can push the button and send out the Roomba or even ask your digital assistant to send it out on a cleaning mission for you, the real power in a robot vacuum is its smarts. Today, that means enabling and using the smart mapping features.

How to use iRobot smart mapping

The iRobot Roomba bot vacs launched in the last few years, including the new J7+, use sensors that can “see” around a home and map the space. Why do they need to map your home? To deliver a whole new level of cleaning and customization, of course! Once the robot knows your floor plan in detail, you can unlock the power to clean zones (that always-dusty area in front of the trash can, for example) or rooms (sweep the entry every day after the morning rush).

How does an iRobot map a house?

The newer iRobot bots have plenty of smarts and a host of sensors that help the robot find its way around a home. iRobot Roomba robots use a technology called vSLAM, or visual simultaneous localization and mapping. In a nutshell, as the bot moves around, it looks for unique areas that it considers markers and then remembers where those landmarks are so it can orient itself every time it leaves the base. It uses vSLAM to create what iRobot dubs Imprint Smart Maps. (By the way, your Smart Map can store multiple maps in its memory. Check out how to use multiple maps. If you’re having trouble with your bot, resetting it can help.)

How to map a house with iRobot Roomba

The good news is, adding this detailed mapping is easy — your robot does all the work. When you first get a Roomba, it will automatically start learning your home’s layout. This may take several passes over several days, depending on how frequently you send out the bot. There are a few ways to speed up this process:

• Send the bot out multiple times in one day.
• Schedule your bot to head out every morning to clean for a few days until it generates the map.
• Do a special mapping run.

Using the iRobot mapping run

The iRobot mapping run is in essence a rolling survey where the Roomba drives all over your home without turning on its vacuum. It uses this run as a data-gathering mission only. Usually, two to three mapping runs will generate a full and complete home map.

If you want your bot to earn its keep by vacuuming while learning, it may take up to five outings before a full map is ready; this depends a bit on the size and layout of your home.

Tips for mapping your home accurately

It’s a good idea to do some quick tidying before sending your robot out on a mapping mission. Pick up anything that might tangle up the robot, put away obstacles like shoes that would prevent it from getting into certain areas, and generally ensure the bot will have access to all floor surfaces. Don’t forget to open doors to all areas you want the Roomba to potentially clean now or in the future.

What can I do with iRobot Roomba Smart Map?

Once you have this magical map of your home, you can use it in the following ways:

• Create no-go zones where the bot won’t venture (a troublesome rug or the dog’s water dish, for example).
• Create zones that can be cleaned more frequently, like the front door or a busy hallway.
• Set room-specific schedules. You can vacuum the bedrooms one day each week, while the bathrooms get special attention every other day, for example.

Maps and hazard recognition

With newer bots like the iRobot j7+, your robot also has hazard recognition. This new feature will recognize and avoid tangle hazards like headphones and cords and photograph and label them on its map so you know what areas couldn’t be cleaned. The J7 will also see other hazards like stray socks or underwear and avoid them so nothing gets caught up in the rollers. You can scoop up the hazards, and the Roomba will clean those areas next time.

The J7 also has what could be called “poop recognition” if your pet has an accident — your bot won’t roll through it and make a yucky mess worse.

Finally, since the J7+ is so smart, it can recognize new obstacles in the home (permanent ones like furniture or temporary ones like shipping boxes) and let you tell the bot whether it should factor that into its new map or ignore it.

Smart mapping on vacuum robots like the iRobot Roomba line help to make smart home keeping robots even smarter and more useful.

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