How does my Robot Navigate?

How they Clean

These models use ClearView™ Lidar for improved mapping and navigation to clean your home. When cleaning, the robot moves systematically through your home, using its LiDAR system to track its location and ensure complete coverage. LiDAR stands for light detection and ranging, which provides 3D mapping of the environment. The cylinder on top of the robot is where the LiDAR comes from, except for the 205 Series.

The robots can clean multiple rooms on a single level of your home, automatically transitioning from one room to another. If the battery runs low during cleaning, the robot will return to its dock to recharge and then resume cleaning where it left off, ensuring complete coverage of your home.

The ClearView™ LiDAR sensor on top of the robot and adds an extra half inch of height when compared to previous models. This may affect the robot’s ability to fit under furniture. 

The 205 uses a built-in internal half Lidar, differing from other models. Because of this, the 205 will need to spin around 360 degrees a couple of times at the beginning of the mission in order to localize and create a full map.

The 505 Series robot includes a front-facing camera, which enables it to detect and avoid even more obstacles with greater accuracy. LiDAR + camera = Our best robot navigation ever!

How They Dock

When it's time to dock, these models use their LiDAR navigation system to locate and return to their charging station. The robot will automatically return to its dock when the battery is running low or when cleaning is complete.

The docking capabilities vary by model. The base 105 series includes standard docking and charging features. The 405 series and above come with self-emptying AutoEmpty™ docks that can hold up to 75 days' worth of debris. The premium 505 Combo models feature the most advanced AutoWash dock, which not only charges and empties the robot but also dries the mop pads with heat to maintain hygiene between cleaning sessions.

All models with self-emptying capabilities will automatically empty their bins when they dock. After recharging, if the cleaning job wasn't completed, the robot will automatically leave the dock and resume cleaning where it left off.

Roomba Essentials

How they clean:

Roomba Essentials uses gyros and an optical caster wheel to navigate and clean an entire level of your home in neat rows.

The mission begins with Roomba® backing off of its dock and turning around. As it starts to clean, it will seek out a good physical landmark (e.g., a straight wall) and will use that as a reference point to localize itself throughout the mission. If the robot needs to re-localize, it will either return to the dock to figure out where it is or look for straight wall segments in the home it had previously visited and use those as anchors to re-localize.

Roomba Essential models do not have a Recharge and Resume feature, meaning the robot cleans as much of an area as possible on a single battery charge.

How they dock:

When Roomba® starts its cleaning mission from the Home Base®, it returns to the general area and looks for an infrared signal emitting from the base. Returning to the base occurs at the end of every mission. If Roomba® was not started from the base originally, it will return to the starting position, regardless of whether a base is nearby. If Roomba® cannot detect the IR signal, it will not dock on the base. The robot returns to the dock by following the wall, so if the dock is not on an exterior wall, then it will never find the dock. Sometimes the robot leaves the dock on its own to re-dock properly. This can happen if the contacts are dirty or if the robot somehow got moved on the dock (bumped by someone or something).

iAdapt® 3.0 Navigation Technology with Visual Localization

s Series

i Series

m Series

j Series

Roomba Combo® 10 Max

How they clean:

Robots that use this navigation technology are our most advanced Roomba® Robot Vacuums and Braava jet® Robot mops ever! Robots that have iAdapt® 3.0 Navigation Technology can utilize Imprint™ Smart Maps. This means that these robots clean, learn, and adapt to your environment. They utilize a camera to identify landmarks and create a map that can be referenced for future cleaning jobs. Imprint™ Smart Maps can be customized to indicate where specific rooms are, and robots that utilize Imprint™ Smart Map technology can map the location of the Home Base® or Clean Base™. These robots clean in a systematic pattern and determine the most efficient way to clean based on the layout of the cleaning area in the Imprint™ Smart Map. These robots also “Recharge and Resume” during cleaning, meaning that when the battery gets low, the robot will return to the base to recharge its battery for 2–3 hours. Roomba® and Braava® will then return to where it left off to resume the cleaning job.

Roomba Combo® j7+/j9+ employs a different navigation behavior to provide the best cleaning performance during combo missions. Once the robot has a fully customized Smart Map, it will first clean the carpeted areas and the mop the hard flooring in that room before moving to the next room and repeating the process. To complete your map fastest, we recommend a mapping run to get your map created. 

To complete your map fastest, we recommend a mapping run to get your map created.

How they dock:

Robots that use iAdapt 3.0 and Imprint™ Smart Mapping technology know the exact location of the Home Base® or Clean Base™ and will return when the battery is low or the cleaning job is complete. Sometimes the robot leaves the dock on its own to re-dock properly. This can happen if the contacts are dirty or if the robot somehow got moved on the dock (bumped by someone or something).

Roomba® robot i3/i5 Series

How they clean:

Unlike other systematic cleaning robots, the i3/i5 doesn’t have a camera, so rather than seeing its way around to clean, it uses floor sensors to feel its way around. These floor sensors enable the robot to navigate purposefully and logically, clean an entire level of your home in neat rows, while creating a temporary map of the area in the process. Because there is no camera in this robot, you can send this Roomba® on a mission in complete darkness.

The mission begins with Roomba® backing off of its dock and turning around. As it starts to clean, it will seek out a good physical landmark (e.g., a straight wall) and will use that as a reference point to localize itself throughout the mission. If the robot needs to re-localize, it will either return to the dock to figure out where it is or will look for straight wall segments in the home that it had previously visited and will use those as anchors to re-localize.

These robots also “Recharge and Resume” during cleaning, meaning that when the battery gets low, the robot will return to the base to recharge its battery and will then return to where it left off to resume the cleaning job.
 

How they dock:

When Roomba® starts its cleaning mission from the Home Base® or Clean Base™, it returns to the general area and looks for an infra-red signal emitting from the base. Returning to the base will happen at the end of every mission, but can also occur mid-mission if the robot needs charging.  Sometimes the robot leaves the dock on its own to re-dock properly. This can happen if the contacts are dirty or if the robot somehow got moved on the dock (bumped by someone or something).

iAdapt® 2.0 Navigation Technology with Visual Localization

900 Series

Braava jet

How they clean:

Robots that use iAdapt® 2.0 Navigation Technology with Visual Localization can systematically navigate your cleaning area, utilizing the camera to identify landmarks to help Roomba® understand its location. After cleaning is complete, Roomba® will create a Clean Map™ Report to show you where it cleaned, but this map is not remembered or referenced for future cleaning jobs. Some robots that utilize iAdapt 2.0 also incorporate Recharge and Resume technology.
 

How they dock:

Robots that use iAdapt® 2.0 Navigation Technology with Visual Localization will return to their original starting location when the battery is low or the cleaning job is complete. If a Home Base® or Clean Base™ is discovered during a cleaning mission, Roomba® will remember the location of the base and attempt to navigate to it if the original starting position was not on the base. If no base is seen during a cleaning job, and Roomba® was not started from a base, then it will return to the original starting position. Sometimes the robot leaves the dock on its own to re-dock properly. This can happen if the contacts are dirty or if the robot somehow got moved on the dock (bumped by someone or something).