Re: roomba AI

["Bobby Green" <robert_green1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"beerismygas" <beerismygas@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:b782df24-b0bf-46d9-a8bd-8b1eddd4aa06@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> hi there,
>
> was considering to get a roomba but from this clip (flash link below)
> on their site
> it appears that the robots movement is similar to a bump n go battery
> powered toy car,totally random movements.
>
> it says it covers a given area in a room on *average* 4 times.thats
> like a car which drives forward then backward and covers the distance
> to work 4 times just to get you to the offic in the morning.mileage x
> 4

Apples and oranges.  You want to get to work as fast as possible.  You want
the floor as clean as possible.  Two very different goals.  iRobot's choice
to cover an area more than once accounts for people saying "it finds loads
of dirt when cleaning areas that have just been cleaned by traditional
vacuuming."  The movements are not random.  There are several algorithms
used depending on the model, but most do a "perimeter run" to assess the
total size of the area to be cleaned and when completed, they begin to clean
a room section by section.  They spend more time in areas where dirt is
detected by the onboard dirt sensor.

> Why wouldnt they choose to make it clean the room in a systematic
> fashion?  thx

To be thorough and to account for the fact that a robot, unlike a human,
can't "see" which areas need more attention than others.  Covering the same
spot more than once (especially from different directions) makes the Roombas
clean far more completely than a human with a vacuum can.  There's also the
issue of the sidebrush, a rotating "whisker" the propels stuff from  corners
that the Roomba's circular design makes hard to reach.  To be sure the
Roomba catches the newly relocated "corner dirt" it has to pass over an area
multiple times.

--
Bobby G.