Ever since robotic vacuum cleaners came into existence, their use has somehow been a nightmare for pet owners. For all of the amazing job a vacuum cleaner does, it makes an unbelievable mess of it all when it comes into contact with dog poop or any solid pet waste even. The robots usually are not able to avoid the waste or pick it up. In fact, the most likely scenario is that the waste will be spread further around the house, creating a totally avoidable mess.
You can quickly do a Google search using the keywords “Roomba dog poop” to have an idea of what a Roomba unwillingly does in times past. But what if a robot cleaner could actually avoid creating this mess?
Well, Roomba maker iRobot has finally announced that it has fixed this problem in the latest edition of its robot cleaners, the Roomba j7+.
The new $849 iRobot Roomba j7+ uses artificial intelligence to identify and avoid all kinds of pet messes.
Speaking to The Verge, the founder and CEO of iRobot, Colin Angle, explained how the product is a very big deal for the company and how long it took to work on it. He then further guaranteed that it really works.
According to Angle, iRobot spent years training the AI vision system of the Roomba j7+, during which it created a large database of simulated pet messes to test the robot’s pet waste detection ability.
A correspondent of CNET news, Brian Bennet, has also confirmed the report in his post. Brian says his source— a representative of iRobot spoke on good authority when he expressed how confident the company is. According to the source, confidence levels are so high that iRobot will be offering customers a one-year warranty for any Roomba j7+ that fails to detect pet poop and gets soiled as a result. The company will replace such for free.
This offer, however will only be covering solid pet waste only. So if your pet drops wetter wastes (such as vomit, diarrhea, or urine), you’re out of luck. But still, iRobot maintains that the vacuum will signal any moment it encounters a strange object.
