Roomba takes to the floors

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: The robots of the future are beginning to emerge from basements and attics around the world - basements and attics with very clean floors.

That’s because these new robots are being built on top of a popular automated floor cleaner, the Roomba. Designed by iRobot Corp. of Burlington, the Roomba is the world’s most successful robot, with 1.5 million units sold. Now, Roomba owners have begun reprogramming and redesigning their robot vacuums, just because they can. And iRobot executives couldn’t be happier. They rolled out a version of the Roomba in October that features a digital data port, to make it easy for hobbyists to reprogram their robots.

“We call it the open interface,” said iRobot cofounder and chairman Helen Greiner. “It’s a way to get all the sensor readings and command all the motors.”

With access to the digital readouts, a hobbyist can create software to control the robot’s movements. Robin Jacobs, an engineer in Spain, is working on software that would let the Roomba create digital “maps” of rooms it cleans. He is also in discussion with French scientists who want to add cameras to create a Roomba that can “see”.

“Currently the robot vacuum cleaner is the only ‘real’ robot to hack,” Jacobs said. “Other robots are meant as toys, are too expensive to mess around with, or both.”

Even though they sell for as little as $150, each Roomba features sophisticated collision sensors, infrared detectors, and reliable electric motors. The machine can find its way around obstacles to cover nearly every inch of a floor. It’s clever enough to plug into its own battery recharging station. But Roomba hackers have more ambitious goals.

Matt Krumtum, an attorney in Bristol, Va., is part of a team of hobbyists who frequent Roomba Review, a website. The team hopes to bolt a laptop computer with WiFi access on top of a Roomba. “The robot could come to you at certain specified times and read your e-mail to you,” he said.

In New Mexico, systems engineer Paul Grunwald bought a used Roomba; he’s adding a circuit board that will use a Palm Pilot hand-held computer to control the robot. He wants to create a Roomba that can map its surroundings, storing the data in the Palm Pilot. Grunwald hopes to add wireless networking, so it can be remotely controlled by a desktop computer. “Then you have almost limitless processing power,” Grunwald said.