Video: Roomba hacked to trail sand on your floor
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted May 12th 2009 4:46PM
posted May 12th 2009 4:46PM
Of all of the Roomba mods we've seen, this is definitely one of them. Just in time to celebrate its entry into the Robot Hall Of Fame, the heads at iRobot have mashed up the happy-go-lucky autonomous vacuum with an old inkjet printer, creating a device that can not only indulge in something called Rangoli, but look great doing it. Just make sure you have another one of these guys on hand to sweep up after you're done playing. As you are no doubt aware, Rangoli is a traditional form of Indian sandpainting -- but we're guessing that the "iRobot" and "i (heart) Robots" messages are not among the motifs one usually finds in front of people's homes and places of worship on the Subcontinent. Check it out on video after the break.
"Of all of the Roomba mods we've seen, this is definitely one of them."
wait, what?
thats what i said!
That's what she said.
Joseph L. Flatley accidentally the whole sentence.
I found that so funny I fell to the floor and rolled around laughing
"Of all of the Roomba mods we've seen, this is definitely one of them. "
Haha, Yes, Yes it is.
I don't think this is what Mr. Miyagi ment when he said "Sand da floor!"
"Of all of the Roomba mods we've seen, this is definitely one of them."
Yes. Well said.
Boring day at engadget.
ugh, all of you beat me to it!
"Of all of the Roomba mods we've seen, this is definitely one of them."
I just had to do one of these.. To be "hip" and "cool". :P
"Of all the articles I've commented on, this is definitely one of them."
How about combining irobot with spykee. That would be fun.
I would be more impressed if it worked the other way, picking up dirt in certain shapes, sort of how people write "wash me" on dirty car windows.
"Of all the articles I've read, this is definitely one of them."
Sorry... i had to lol
I so want a Roomba :P
Cool!
Just replace the sand with Shake 'n' Vac (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shake_%27n%27_Vac)
:D
Oh man, I wish I could hack my original Roomba to make it work properly. After an extensive effort to cure of the dreaded "circle dance," it doesn't even do that any more. I can pretty much fix anything but I'm sick of messing with it. Anyone want it for parts? Pay the shipping and it's yours. For me, having dead tech (that I wont to fix) laying around the house is simply depressing.
Oooh, the.egg.and.we at gmail.com if you were serious, hehe.
Yeah, this is cool, until you come home and you find death threats written across your carpet.
I
Wow, I just failed...
Please act as if my above comment and this one are deleted.
That won't happen... Until 2012!!!
Is this a good time to uses the word "Ironic"?
Imagine how peeved unmodded roombas get when this guy shows up.
So, you're saying that you hacked a cleaning robot into leaving trails of dirt on the floor. Brilliant!
That ain't a Roomba! It's an iRobot Create!
Not only is it a Create, this video is from when the Create was introduced, in 2006—and was on Engadget then, if memory serves :D
damn i was kind expecting this to move a little faster. its like an inch every second. need to boost the speed of that printer and have it race around in front of people and ask them a question. i can see it now a nerd asks a girl out with a Roomba
Of all the comments I've written, this is definitely one of them.
I, for one, welcome our new floor-dirtying overlords.
Old news
iRobot job security!