Page 14 - Hacking Roomba

Introduction

The iRobot Roomba is perhaps the best example of mobile robotics entering the home. It per-
forms a useful task and is relatively inexpensive, and while it doesn’t look like Rosie the Robot
on The Jetsons, it does have a charm of its own.
The purpose of this book is to introduce robot hacking to people who are interested in program-
ming and modifying their own robot but who don’t want to destroy a functioning Roomba. This
“reversible hacking” is device modification that can be undone to return the device to its original
state. In the case of the Roomba, the ROI connector is the gateway to reversible Roomba hack-
ing. All manner of devices can be plugged into the ROI: a desktop computer, a microcontroller
“brain” to replace the original, new sensors and actuators, or maybe just some snazzy running
lights. Any of these modifications can be quickly removed, leaving the Roomba in the original
state. All hacks presented in this book are reversible hacks. None of the projects in this book will
damage your Roomba or even void its warranty. (However, a few potentially warranty-voiding
options are included and explained as such, if you are intrepid enough to explore them.)
This book shows how to make the Roomba do more than be a cute vacuum cleaner. With this
book, the reader can give the Roomba new or more complex behaviors, connect it to the
Internet, control it from a computer, and literally make it dance and sing. This book is a way to
learn the basics of robotics and have fun programming a robot without needing to build one.
All of the projects can be done without breaking open the Roomba or even voiding its war-
ranty. And like all good hacking books, this one shows how to install Linux on a Roomba. This
book is a practical demonstration of several ways to create networked objects, normal devices
with intelligence and Internet connectivity.

The History of Hacking the Roomba

Most people who purchased the first Roombas were early adopters of technology and liked the
idea of a personal robot to do their bidding. To watch a Roomba roaming around their living
room, cleaning up after a mess, was to experience in a small way life in the future.
Unfortunately, the Roomba wasn’t very “hackable” by the normal gadgeteer. If you wanted to
easily reprogram your Roomba to alter its behavior or make it do tricks, you were out of luck.
At the least you had to take the Roomba apart, definitely voiding its warranty. Once inside
perhaps you could reverse engineer the small computer (also known as the microcontroller)
used as its brain, maybe replace it completely, and hook into the motors and sensors, effec-
tively destroying it for its original purpose. Communities devoted to hacking the Roomba in
this low-level way grew and flourished. The hacking section of Roomba Review (http://
roombareview.com/hack/) is one of the most famous, and the accompanying forum is
still the best place to go to discuss Roomba hacking. Other sites like Hackaday (http://
hackaday.com/) and Makezine (http://makezine.com/) routinely featured projects that
used stripped-down or heavily modified Roombas. But hacking the Roomba was a difficult and
expensive task, only suitable for the most experienced engineers. Recently this has changed.