Are You Being Served?

As the proud new owner of an iRobot Roomba, I'm fascinated by the technology behind these little helpers. In addition to vacuuming, they feature an anti-tangle system to extract themselves from cords and carpet fringes, they self-adjust from carpets to hard floors and back again, and when it's running low on energy or is done cleaning, the Roomba locates its dock and returns to its home base to recharge.

I fell in love with my Roomba immediately, and wondered if other iRobot owners felt the same. There are plenty of user groups online, but the site that excited me most was about the Zoomba--a Roomba that's had its microprocessor replaced so it can be used as a platform for robotics experimentation. What does that entail? How about programming two Roombas to find and chase each other? Adding a microphone to make it voice-activated? Adding a wireless camera to make it a mobile security robot? All this sort of defeats the purpose of buying the Roomba for vacuuming, but having a robot that patrols my house, recognizes my voice, and wants to play hide and seek? Awesome.

--AndreaLeigh