adventures in tiny pet robots

[kaberett]

I am much happier when the floors have recently been swept and vacuumed. The world is a much nicer place, and it's great. Unfortunately, I also really hate the process of, um, doing the vacuuming.

Fortunately, I just got a giant wad of cash to spend on assistive tech.

Which is how I come to find myself in possession of a tiny pet robot that's exploring the house mostly by dint of trundling around and gently donking into things, putting me in mind of nothing quite so much as trilobites, which page I link to because of its splendid variety of ancient marine woodlice with decorative headpieces.

It does this wonderful little affronted considering pause when it hits something.

It is incredibly confused by the rug, not least because it knows this space is something it has been on, so why can't it get there, it got down just fine, the other direction wasn't a problem (answer: it's struggling with getting over the edge except from a couple of specific angles at the corners).

Good things so far: TINY ROBOT PET; thirty-six hours in, it's an effective encouragement to keep the floors rather clearer; it does under the bathroom cupboards where I Fear To Tread and for that matter under the ridiculous chest of drawers in the bedroom; in so doing it has excavated an attachment for one of Adam's oral hygiene devices and a perfume sample I hadn't realised was missing. We keep following it around going "oh NO" and cooing over it being Adorable.

Downsides: oh dear friend you are really struggling with the rug. I'm not entirely convinced of its capacity to cope with the front hall carpet, which gets mud tracked into it sort of inevitably via the medium of wheelchair. I think it might need me to run the Grown-Up Vacuum over it once more to get it started: I can see how it might be able to keep on top of the world if it runs every day despite being underequipped to cope with doing a whole job from the get go. It has not yet quite managed to find its way down my side of the bed.

So the jury's still out on whether this is a foster home or a forever home, but it is very cute.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Do you have any four legged pets for it to encounter?

(I suspect that might get messy.)

[kaberett]

We do not! We're both vegetarian and squeamish about meat, plus I'm allergic to cats; Adam is Very Into the concept of rabbits, but not sufficiently Into to be willing to take responsibility for rabbit-proofing the house in a way that doesn't make it harder for me to charge my wheelchair; most other things aren't currently practical for a variety of reasons.

On the other hand, we do have a visit cat, which is already incredibly easily confused, so come the summer that might turn entertaining...

[alexseanchai]

you have your own Stabby the Space Roomba!

…this is assistive tech we might also want to consider

(but money tho)

[davidgillon]

There's also Hanners' Roomba from Questionable Content https://questionablecontent.fandom.com/wiki/Roomba

[kaberett]

yeah, the five-figure gov't payout that I can't just save is, uh, an encouragement to actually buy myself the nice things.

[azurelunatic]

We should put it on The List; 2/3 approval means it at least gets consideration/saving up.

[sporky_rat]

I've given thought to one of those due to the amount of cat hair we have, but I have a really good vacuum I'm happy to use if I can get some assistance in moving stuff around.
That part is the hard part.

[kaberett]

yeaaaaah. Where I find vacuuming really tiring, so something that will keep the flat Less Miserable when I don't manage said for six weeks at a time is... plausibly a really significant improvement in quality of life.

[momijizukamori]

I have been contemplating one because cat = everything needs to be vacuumed always, and I could probably use the encouragement to not leave things all over the floor where I will later trip on them, so I look forward to updates and opinions *g*

[kaberett]

Heeee. This is in fact not the Which? best buy for cat hair -- it's the Roomba a model down or thereabouts -- but it was 1/3 the list price of top-of-the-range new, but I will keep you all posted. :)

Adam emptied it out this morning thereby demonstrating that in fact it HAD successfully eaten a bunch of Stuff even if it was struggling with larger lumps.

[watersword]

Does New Friend have a name?

[lunabee34]

This was my question!

[ninetydegrees]

The thing that really sold me on it was getting rid of hair regularly in the bathroom, and it going under the bed. Some rooms/places are easier with a traditional vacuum but it also helps when you have too few energy spoons.

[kaberett]

Yeah, I'm starting to come to the conclusion that even if it doesn't manage to do Everything as thoroughly as the big vacuum does, it will almost certainly still do enough quality-of-life improvement via upkeep to probably be worthwhile...

[rushthatspeaks]

We had one, but it had an... incident when one of the cats did not use the litterbox, and said incident totaled the Roomba (and, honestly, was kind of scarring for everybody else). I miss it.

They don't actually save any time, because following them about cooing isn't a phase, it's just how things work when they're around, but they save SO MUCH bending over, and go so many places standard vacuums don't reach.

[me_and]

Yes. Excellent. I am glad we will not tire of the cooing

[vass]

Do you need to spend a lot of time cleaning out its abdominal cavity, or untangling its wheels?

That's what frustrated me about mine. It'd spin even quite short hair fibres into twine to trip itself up. And also get stuck in some corners and just... stay stuck there. But mainly it was the having to keep evacuating its bowels for it when it filled up, which it did very frequently.

They are very cute, though.

(Thank you for link to very old fancy pillbugs!)

[kaberett]

We have not yet had to untangle its wheels! We both have pretty long hair that *does* tend to shed, but it's not choked on it yet.

So far it has been emptied once, less because it needed it and more because Adam wanted to see what happened if he disembowelled it. Which provided evidence that it WAS sucking up Grot, which was gratifying; this model is also doing a pretty good job of getting itself into a corner and then very thoughtfully donking in a little circle until it finds its way out. It's very Dismayed about the rug but is otherwise coping.

(THEY ARE SUCH IMPORTANT AMINALS.)

[aldabra]

Strips of perspex along the rug edges? Perhaps it would remove them on the way down.

I'm waiting for the ones which will pick everything up so they can see the floor.

[kaberett]

Yes, reddit suggests that if you build it a wee access ramp all the way round the rug it copes better, but I'm a bit dubious about the practicalities of that.

I have much sympathy for the desire for a thing that picks up as it goes.

[oyceter]

Every time ours gets stuck in some random place or because it ate all the wires, I tell CB this is why I do not yet fear the robot uprising.

[kaberett]

heeeeeee.

[judiff]

Helpful Robot Friend sounds really cool

[kaberett]

we are enjoying its company A Lot so far!

[angelofthenorth]

When we had one, we had to use the big vacuum about once a month to help out out

[kaberett]

thank you, that's useful data! I aim to vacuum at least once a fortnight (... once a week would be better...) but in practice only have the cope every 6-8 weeks, so I suspect this will (grumblingly) be a significant improvement even if I am still getting the grown-up vacuum out every now and again...

[chiasmata]

ROBOT. ROBOT ROBOT ROBOT.

[kaberett]

INDEED. :D

[azurelunatic]

I loved mine! Especially with cat hair. I found I had to groom R. Daneel every third run or so from the long hair; this was also a decade ago. (HOW HAVE WE KNOWN EACH OTHER 10 YEARS, KAB. HOW.) I ran it every other day or so to pick up dirt I didn't see yet.

[kaberett]

<333

Yes, I think we are probably at running every other day or so.

[archangelbeth]

...how upset does it get if it bumps into clutter? >_>

(Edit: Asking for a friend. Who is me. I'm the friend. With clutter.)

[kaberett]

It has a wee bumper! When it donks gently into something it pauses, and thinks for a second, and updates its internal map, and then it Turns Around and stops trying to eat said clutter and snuffles off over whatever floor-bits it can see.

[highlyeccentric]

Pet Robot that does MOST of the vacuuming most of the time is better than you having to do all of it (in practice rarely), surely?

[kaberett]

I am certainly coming to that conclusion! I was a bit "IS IT EVEN SUCKING UP ANYTHING AT ALL" when I was watching it struggle with some Larger Bits but, in fact, it has clearly eaten a lot of grot every time it gets opened up, so I think it's probably here to stay...

[alexwlchan]

I’m glad you’re enjoying robot friend!

Yeah, carpets it will struggle with – I had a Roomba that got stuck on long drapey curtains for similar reasons. (You’ve bonded so much faster with yours than I ever did with mine; I think a combination of me quite enjoying hoovering and having a flat that is hazardous to tiny robots meant we were never going to be close friends, and it’s currently sitting in a box somewhere.)

[kaberett]

I have important tumblr tags about tiny robots - I am definitely predisposed to pair bond with them! & vacuuming is one of the activities I find particularly tiring, so.

[fyreharper]

Tiny robot friemd!! <3

[kaberett]

ysss

[sfred]

Hurray tiny robot! <3

[kaberett]

Yes indeed. :D

[antiqueight]

I am envious of this pet robot and may eventually get one - but the floor needs to be visible first

[kaberett]

life hack: start using a wheelchair, rapidly end up with at least one clear corridor...

[lokifan]

Awwwww yay tiny robot pet!