The Roomba test drive

Roomba entered my life recently. The addition was not my doing, and at first I looked at him with a deep suspicion. I spent several years of my life cleaning houses and I feel doubtful of anyone - or thing - that thinks he can do the job better than me.

I got home from work tonight and decided to experiment. Seemed simple enough: I hit the "clean" button. At first Roomba spun in circles and appeared unable to hurdle even the tiniest obstacle. After 10 minutes in one small area of the living room I gave up, picked him up and carried him to another location. He protested. I was rudely beeped at and a red light appeared warning me that I was breaking the rules. I scoffed and set him back down, challenging him to carry on. This process repeated for about 15 minutes until I gave up my controlling ways and let him do the job without supervision.

True to programming, Roomba cleaned diligently for one hour and then returned to his dock without hesitation. I checked for results - of course after cleaning, Roomba must be cleaned - and was impressed and horrified with the amount of crap he had gathered. With a new respect, I set him down gently to rest and charge up for the night.

Now all I need is a cat to make things really interesting.