Yeah, this looks like a store inside a mall. If they used one of their vacuums, it’d not be contained within the store since they just kinda drive around until they hit a wall or come to a ledge before changing directions.
I highly doubt they are concerned about the privacy of their own business, which is the only reason a normal person should not be using these unless you know how to disable their ability to phone home.
Are there open-source alternatives, or any DIY projects?
I’ve seen 3D printer files for the case. What else do you need besides some wheels, some circuitry, a battery, some lidar or ultrasonic rangefinders, a microcontroller, and some code?
Doesn’t seem too difficult if you know how to solder and can find instructions. The hardest part would be programming it, but if the code already exists…
I also found out about oomwoo https://github.com/makerspet/oomwoo
Some people say that it’s made with AI or smth so be aware (and it’s not even complete yet)
Only the fancy pants ones. The cheap ones are like blind bumblebees that clean by accident while running headlong into every wall. I dunno if a shop would risk using expensive ones when underpaying a cleaner is cheaper. There’s a message here but I’m too tired to see it. I wonder if you actually did the math, how expensive would hiring a cleaning service match up to buying one of the fancy robot vacuums?
An off-brand one i found on residential waste 6 years ago (broken lidar motor, 5 quid in spare parts) has internal maps.
They really don’t have to be fancy pants for this in this year of our lord 2026 where disposable vapes have the chips to run a webserver.
Roombas have also had “beacons” before they had any competition. You could set two of them up to block it from leaving.
I also have a hard time imagining that if a Roomba store chose to use its bots in the store, they would go with the cheapest model instead of showing off one of their top models.
Roombas aren’t designed for commercial spaces.
Yeah, this looks like a store inside a mall. If they used one of their vacuums, it’d not be contained within the store since they just kinda drive around until they hit a wall or come to a ledge before changing directions.
I highly doubt they are concerned about the privacy of their own business, which is the only reason a normal person should not be using these unless you know how to disable their ability to phone home.
Are there open-source alternatives, or any DIY projects?
I’ve seen 3D printer files for the case. What else do you need besides some wheels, some circuitry, a battery, some lidar or ultrasonic rangefinders, a microcontroller, and some code?
Doesn’t seem too difficult if you know how to solder and can find instructions. The hardest part would be programming it, but if the code already exists…
I found this: https://github.com/alvitawa/stofzuigerrobot
but it’s a 7 years old unmantained project
I also found out about oomwoo
https://github.com/makerspet/oomwoo
Some people say that it’s made with AI or smth so be aware (and it’s not even complete yet)
They can store maps so that they don’t go out of a designated area.
Only the fancy pants ones. The cheap ones are like blind bumblebees that clean by accident while running headlong into every wall. I dunno if a shop would risk using expensive ones when underpaying a cleaner is cheaper. There’s a message here but I’m too tired to see it. I wonder if you actually did the math, how expensive would hiring a cleaning service match up to buying one of the fancy robot vacuums?
An off-brand one i found on residential waste 6 years ago (broken lidar motor, 5 quid in spare parts) has internal maps. They really don’t have to be fancy pants for this in this year of our lord 2026 where disposable vapes have the chips to run a webserver.
Roombas have also had “beacons” before they had any competition. You could set two of them up to block it from leaving.
I also have a hard time imagining that if a Roomba store chose to use its bots in the store, they would go with the cheapest model instead of showing off one of their top models.
Maybe the ones around here are just garbage then. The first one I bought for $120 AUD 4 years ago didn’t have a map