Simple Roomba bumper hack

Robotics
Simple Roomba bumper hack

roombaBumpHack.jpg
When we got our Roomba and it whirred off on its first cleaning detail, as it headed for one of the stuffed chairs in our living room, I had an oh-no moment realizing that the chair was above the floor almost at the exact height as Roomba’s bumper. Luckily this wasn’t the case, but if it had been, we would’ve spent a lot of time unsticking the robo-maid (sorta defeating the whole autonomous vacuum concept). Chris Anderson, from the most awesome Geekdad, did have this annoying problem. But while visiting iRobot in Boston, they hipped him to the simplest mod. He added a couple of screws to Roomba’s bumper high enough to prevent the stickage. As he points out, if you have scratch-prone furniture, you probably want to use a softer material (or cover the screws).

Testing the new Roomba (as a LEGO battle platform) – Link

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn

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