The newest Roomba is finally smart enough to avoid pet poop

From Pop Sci.com (Nov. 22):

The maker of Roombas, iRobot, is utilizing machine learning to ensure that its latest line of robot vacuums is particularly appealing to pet owners. The company announced Thursday that its Roomba j7+ Robot Vacuum has been specifically designed to avoid animal poop, alluding to an issue that has made attempts at cleanup incredibly messy for some customers in the past. (If you want proof, Buzzfeed chronicled one viral “pooptastrophe” in 2016).

The company says the Roomba j7+ uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to watch out for solid pet waste, recognize if an unwelcome surprise happens to be in its way, and make moves to avoid it. This marks a new milestone in the company’s use of AI, building on the iRobot Genius Home Intelligence platform it launched in 2020 to provide customers with more customizations, including enhanced mapping, scheduling, and automation features.

According to iRobot chairman and CEO Colin Angle, the company is now confident enough in these capabilities that it is guaranteeing that this new poop-detecting feature will work. Although there are other robot vacuums that make similar claims, Angle told The Verge iRobot is the first to put its money where its automated mouth is, offering to replace the item if it fails to fulfill their “Pet Owner Official Promise”—P.O.O.P., as they call it —to avoid running into pet poo. [read more]

Interesting in a disgusting kind of way. I get the neural network (I guess that’s what they are using) not letting the Roomba pickup wet poop, but what about if it is is dried? I wouldn’t think that would be a problem. Surely, its network can detect the difference between the two. Then again if the owners of the Roomba doesn’t want it to pick it up the crap at all, then the company has to do what the customer wants.