We present an approach to teaching autonomous robotics to upper-level undergraduates through the medium of embodied games. As part of a developing course at Brown University, we have created the Roomba Pac-Man task to introduce students to different approaches to autonomous robot control in the context of a specific task. Roomba Pac-Man has been developed using commodity hardware from which stu...

This paper investigates the suitability of iRobot’s Roomba as a low-cost robotic platform for use in both research and education. We present sensor and actuation models and implement algorithms that demonstrate the Roomba’s viability. While the platform has both benefits and drawbacks relative to similarly-priced alternatives, we conclude that the Roomba will interest many educators, especially...

The Roomba has become a rugged yet inexpensive peripheral robotics platform. Remotely controlling it with a desktop PC is well understood, but limits the utility as a research robot. By providing a capable on-board intelligence, the Roomba can be made autonomous and enable the installation of additional senses and actuators. With the addition of a sub-$100 wireless router, the Roomba can cut th...

This paper investigates the suitability of iRobot’s Roomba as a low-cost robotic platform for use in AI research and education. Examining the sensing and actuation capabilities of the vacuum base led us to develop sensor and actuation models more accurate than those provided by the raw API. We validate these models with implementations of Monte Carlo Localization and FastSLAM, algorithms that s...

Robots have entered our domestic lives as pets, caretakers and vacuum cleaners. Yet, little is known about their impact on the home. This paper takes first steps towards addressing this omission, by reporting on results from an empirical study of iRobot’s Roomba –a vacuuming robot—that examined adoption and use. Our findings suggest that, by developing intimacy to the robot, our participants we...

Reactive architectures have gain wide acceptance as a robust and effective architecture design that yields results through the flexibility of its simplicity. Such architectures have made their way into many commercial products, including the popular iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner. The existing reactive architecture does not always produce results efficiently and by adding mapping functions and pl...

Robots that work with people foster social relationships between people and systems. The home is an interesting place to study the adoption and use of these systems. The home provides challenges from both technical and interaction perspectives. In addition, the home is a seat for many specialized human behaviors and needs, and has a long history of what is collected and used to functionally, ae...

The study presented in this paper examined people’s perception of domestic service robots by means of an ethnographic study. We investigated initial reactions of nine households who lived with a Roomba vacuum cleaner robot over a two week period. To explore people’s attitude and how it changed over time, we used a recurring questionnaire that was filled at three different times, integrated in 1...