Do Robot Vacuums Map Your House?
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If you are not familiar with robot vacuum cleaners, it’s hard to comprehend how much they can make your life easier. Understandably, many users wonder if robot vacuum cleaners map and learn your house. After all, having a smart cleaning tool that cleans your house without your supervision is very enjoyable.
Do robot vacuums map and learn about your house? Yes, some models of robot vacuums learn and map the layout of your house. These robot vacuums will then present the layout to you through a digital map. This feature allows you to label each room in your house and command the robot vacuum to clean any room at any time.
With that said the way robot vacuums learn the layout of your home involves more than just a few sensors. In this post, let’s take a look at how robot vacuums map and learn your house. Understanding this basic information will dramatically help you to get the most out of your beloved robot vacuums. Let’s get started.
Do Robot Vacuums Map Your House?
Many robot vacuums are not equipped with house mapping technology.
With the continuous innovation of technology, it’s not surprising to find higher-end robot vacuum cleaners that learn the layout of your house and present it to you on a map, usually through a smartphone app. This digital map allows you to designate areas to clean or areas that are off-limits for the device.
With that said, there are more than just a few sensors involved when a robot vacuum cleaner learns the layout of your house. A huge number of data is gathered and processed in order for the device to navigate your home smoothly. Let’s take a look at how robot vacuums map your house and learn the benefits as well.
How Do Robot Vacuums Map Your House?
A regular robot vacuum cleaner comes with various sensors to help it ‘see and feel’ the environment around it. However, more advanced robot vacuums take it one step further and gather data to better understand your house. Different models come with different technologies to gather data.
Generally, there are two types of technology used by robot vacuum cleaners to learn and map an environment:
- Camera-based mapping system – creates a map of your house by using on-board cameras. The images combined with the data provided by its sensors will help the robot vacuum build a layout of the environment.
- Light detection and ranging – measure the distance between itself and obstacles, including walls. The data provided by its range of sensors will help the robot vacuum build a map of your home after a few cleaning runs.
iRobot devices use light detection and ranging to navigate a room. More specifically, its patented iAdapt technology intelligently maps and remembers multiple floor plans to clean your entire home. By tracking where the device has been and where it needs to go, it can clean your home more efficiently.
What makes the Roomba’s technology so life-changing is its ability to move around while also knowing where obstacles are. Unfortunately, it does not do this automatically. In order to accurately navigate throughout your home, it needs about four to five runs to better understand the layout.
Once you have mapped out your house, you can command the Roomba to clean any part of a room or different areas altogether. If you have certain areas that you don’t want the Roomba to clean (like areas with tangled cables), you can set specific boundaries to prevent the robot vacuum from going there.
Another product, like the DEEBOT 901, comes with four different modes after it’s done mapping your house. It will also predefine each room in your hours. With this, you can command the robot to clean your house automatically (based on the map), clean a specific room, or even clean a specific area.
Benefits of Robot Vacuums with Mapping Technology
So, why do robot vacuums map your house, and what are the benefits? Here are three of the most important benefits of robot vacuums with mapping technology:
1. Cleans More Efficiently
One of the most common criticisms of robot vacuums that do not have mapping is that they can often appear to clean rooms in random patterns. A robot vacuum with mapping technology understands where it needs to go and knows which area has already been cleaned, thus cleaning more efficiently.
2. Saves Battery Power
Robot vacuums with mapping technology can save battery power. Unlike robot vacuums without mapping technology, mapping robots know if it’s running low on battery during a cleaning run. The best models have the ability to go to its dock to charge itself and will pick up where they left off after it’s fully charged.
3. Promotes Convenience
Smart robot vacuums can make your life easier in ways you can’t imagine. For example, the Imprint Smart Mapping feature enables the Roomba to learn and adapt to your home. If crumbs spill on the floor, you can simply tell the Roomba to immediately clean the area using either your Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.
PRO TIP: If your mind’s made up on how wonderful and amazing a robot vacuum cleaner that maps your house is, then consider reading our reviews of the best robot vacuum with mapping technology. Countless hours of research and testing went into our reviews to ensure your utmost best buying decision.
Final Verdict
And there you have it, a short and simple guide to answer: do robot vacuums map and learn your house? Having a smart robot vacuum cleaner that intuitively cleans your house is a wonderful luxury to enjoy, especially if it understands your needs more and more each day. Think of it as your personal housemaid.
With that said, it’s safe to say that robot vacuums with mapping technology are often more efficient than regular robot vacuums, especially after multiple runs throughout your house. Rest assured, when the map is complete, any robot vacuum will be able to better navigate and clean any space more effectively. 🙂
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