iRobot 4150 Roomba Robotic Cleaner

The iRobot 4150 does a great job of picking up dirt, and especially pet hair, from carpet. Unfortunately it does such a good job that the first several times you use it, you will need to watch it and keep emptying the tiny bin where it collects the dirt. (Of course it is also fun to watch, at least the first few times)

One small problem I found is that it will get itself trapped under some furniture. The Roomba relies mostly on its front bumper sensor to tell when it hits a wall or obstacle. If you have a coffee table, the Roomba can run under it without hitting the front bumper; but if that table has a bottom shelf just the right few inches above the floor the Roomba runs under the shelf and gets stuck. It also gets confused by some furniture legs and spends quite a while playing pinball bouncing around between the legs before it finally finds it way out.

Overall I think it is going to work well for my needs once we get used to each other.