No I am not designing an International Space Station resupply vehicle.... does anyone know how the small floor sweepers return to their charging stations?
I guess I could Google, but I need to get to bed.
Night all.
Ross
valusoft 
Technique for automatic docking.
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valusoft 
awneil 
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Do they just "remember" from when they started out, or can they "find" it ... ?
We've never had a roomba, but Meg must have seen the videos, and wanted to give it a try:
Torby 
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Location: Bartlesville Oklahoma USA
valusoft wrote:
does anyone know how the small floor sweepers return to their charging stations?
Um. Nicely?
If you don't know my whole story, keep your mouth shut.
If you know my whole story, you're an accomplice. Keep your mouth shut. 
joeymorin
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/home/robotic-vacuum2.htm
Roomba can clean for about two hours on a single charge. If you have the self-charger, Roomba will return and connect to the charger all by itself when the battery power is low (the self-charger is sold as an add-on to the Roomba base model but comes included on most of the higher Discovery models). It accomplishes this using the infrared receiver on its front bumper. When the battery power gets low, the vacuum starts looking for the infrared signal emitted by the charger. Once it finds it, Roomba follows the signal and docks itself to the charger. Some robotic vacuums with this self-charging feature will head back out to resume cleaning once they're fully recharged.
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"Experience is what enables you to recognise a mistake the second time you make it." "Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." "Wisdom is always wont to arrive late, and to be a little approximate on first possession." "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not unicorns." "Fast. Cheap. Good. Pick two." "We see a lot of arses on handlebars around here." - [J Ekdahl] |
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valusoft Thanks everyone. Nice morning here.
@Andy. Not sure that I could afford "Meg's" pet food costs, but nice idea.
@Joey. Hmmm, IR bounces all over the place... well my TV remote does. I wonder how that is handled to avoid the wild chasing around the room. Maybe I should read your link... now.
Ross
awneil
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valusoft wrote:
Not sure that I could afford "Meg's" pet food costs
Currently zero.
valusoft Oh yeah... sorry, I forgot.
awneil
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No worries - just pullin' yer leg!
joeymorin
Andy, you continue to be in my thoughts.
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"Experience is what enables you to recognise a mistake the second time you make it." "Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." "Wisdom is always wont to arrive late, and to be a little approximate on first possession." "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not unicorns." "Fast. Cheap. Good. Pick two." "We see a lot of arses on handlebars around here." - [J Ekdahl] |
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jgmdesign 
I was going to get a Roomba until I saw one in action , and talked to the owner, who is a friend and he told me not to bother with them. THey do not really vacuum the carpet/floor as good as a conventional person driven unit as they do not track where they have been very well. He showed me an empty room and placed the unit on the carpet and off it went. There were lines intersecting all over the place and after 45 minutes in a 12 x 20 foot room the lines looked like abstract art and the dirt we left on the floor in places was barely touched. Hardwood floors are no better and if there are obstructions the thing changes course each time it hits something so the odds of the mess being cleaned up are pretty slim.
After looking at the performance after 90 minutes I decided to save my money and just spend an hour or so twice a week and take care of it myself.
JIm
valusoft So Jim, you now have a ride-on vacuum like Andy's... 
I bought a cheapie (A$20) Roomba-like clone to hack. And one of things that could be useful is a return to base facility. I don't know why yet, but am just collecting ideas that have been flung at the idea wall. My idea fan is already clogged up with smelly stuff. 
frog_jr
Ross,
Remember, sometimes the "smelly stuff" is just the perfect fertilizer for the best stuff.
joeymorin
I bought a cheapie (A$20) Roomba-like clone to hack.
I did the same a few years ago. Tried it out as a vac first. Pretty anaemic. Battery life is very poor (although that's due to the 800 mAh 'AA' pack, which I could easily replace with a 2700 mAh pack), cleaning pattern is not well suited to my abode, and the dust bin is the size of a thimble.
I put it on the pile of things-to-take-apart-and-see-how-they-work-to-maybe-make-them-better, but that pile is large :)
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"Experience is what enables you to recognise a mistake the second time you make it." "Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." "Wisdom is always wont to arrive late, and to be a little approximate on first possession." "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not unicorns." "Fast. Cheap. Good. Pick two." "We see a lot of arses on handlebars around here." - [J Ekdahl] |
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bobgardner 
So its algorithm is random walk. Just generate random x,y coords and draw a line to them. How long until the screen is full? Answer: first its half full, then 1/4 to go, then 1/8, then 1/16th. So after a day or two you will be almost done....
awneil
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valusoft wrote:
So Jim, you now have a ride-on vacuum like Andy's..
Back in the day when the computers at work were also called "VAX", we used to joke that at least they'd be good for cleaning the carpets ...
Last Edited: Tue. Jan 17, 2017 - 09:51 PM
Kartman
I'd like to get my hands on a microvaxII, but I've got a lsi11/23 turning up in the next week for my QBUS experiments! 3MHz of 16bit computing power!
dak664
That is a microvax, theoretically as good as the old mainframe vax but falling short at custom real-time control due to the complications of Q-Bus and SCSI compared to the old UNIBUS - http://www.netbsd.org/docs/Hardw...
These were the workhorse VAXen in the 1980s, running large accelerators and the like:
http://www.corestore.org/VAX780.htm
http://comley.us/browse.php?&act...
Of course all could use the incredibly productive Digital Command Language, DCL.
bobgardner We used vaxes in simulators. The vax 780 was widely regarded as a 1 mip machine and were the standard for a vax mip of 1667 dhrystones. They marketing dudes wouldnt let the vax 750 and vax 725s out mips the flagship machine, so the mips per $ was their figure of merit. The 750 was cheaper and slower. The 750 and 725 used 29000 4 bit bit slice cpus, so they could all run as fast or faster than the 780. The microvax and microvaxIIs had microprocessor/integratedcircuit cpus, and I think they were still rated at 1 mips. Now my 32MHz mega32 here turns 50000 dyrystones in 8sec, or 6250 dhrystones per sec, about 4 vax mips. Standby and I'll check the exact figures. Yep thise are my figures. The dude that wrote the VMS OS is the dude Gates hired to write New Technology OS. My OldTimers prevents me from dredging up his name. I'm WayTooOld to win on Jeopardy. Dave Cutler bubbled up just before I hit Post. Might be wrong. Forgive me in advance.
Last Edited: Wed. Jan 18, 2017 - 02:05 AM
ki0bk
My roomba does a great job, although I sometimes have to clean its power dock so it can recharge properly once in awhile.
BTW, the roomba have a M328 as the main brain, they even sold base units for robotics beginners at one time.
Their support is good, with spare parts available for most models, pick one up at a garage sale, clean it, replace the broken parts and have one cheap.
Bob, your right, Dave Cutler was the guy behind WNT ("VMS + 1 = "WNT)
Jim
valusoft valusoft ki0bk
I always get a kick out of mine when it first starts it's cleaning run, as it backs off the charging dock, it goes beep...beep...beep backup alarm like the big trucks do! LOL
and when it returns to the charging dock plays dit dit dit dit, dit dah (charge!)
Jim
valusoft No charging dock for mine, but I am thinking about it. The reversing alarm has just been added to the "nice to have" list.
gchapman
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Location: Clay County, Texas, u.S.A.
jgmdesign wrote:
Not a surprise that a Dyson was the pick :
I was going to get a Roomba until I saw one in action , ...
The Independent
7 best robot vacuum cleaners
by Zoe Galloway, Jochan Embley
19 October 2016
Take the hassle out of household chores with a smart, hard-working machine
...
We also covered the carpet with dust, fluff and dirt to find out just how much mess each one could vacuum, while also testing different cleaning modes and accessories.
...
Paulvdh
And probably not all these things depend on an (IR?) led to get them home.
The video below has a "heat map" of the paths the cleaner moved on.
Nice straight lines and it followes the edges of obstacles.
It remind me of the 80's home computer with a flood fill algorithm.
It really doesn't miss a spot.
Noteworthy is 00:01:04 in the blue heatmap video.
There it has finished with a section of the floor and it is smart enough to go directly to a section of uncleaned floor.
http://kurokesu.com/main/2016/10...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...
Sidenote: These cleaners are very good with little doggy accidents :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...
Apart from all that. for me the more interesting question is how a small battery powered gadget compares with an 1800W vacuum cleaner.
Edit:
Just noticed the Dyson one has a fish-eye camera in the top to look at the ceiling. That could be used pretty convincingly to keep track of position.
Last Edited: Sat. Jan 21, 2017 - 02:31 PM
awneil
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Location: Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK
gchapman wrote:
Not a surprise that a Dyson was the pick
They say that the Dyson, "has the largest price tag" - but it is the same price as the Samsung & the Roomba.