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iRobot Announces Create 2: An Updated, Hackable Roomba

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Re: iRobot Announces Create 2: An Updated, Hackable Roomba

#11

Post by Fuzzwah »

djb_hackernews wrote: post #9

I bought the original Create when it came out in 2007. It was an awesome piece of tech back then, very stable/rugged, reasonable low level API, extendable, and yes "hackable". The only downsides was the interface felt old even for 2007, which was a serial port (you'd see a lot of Create projects driving around with a laptop sitting on top of it). And the "battery pack" was useless and ran on I think 12 AA batteries w…

I can't find a simple list of the sensors. But reading through this:

http://www.irobot.com/~/media/MainSite/PDFs/About/STEM/Creat...

And based on the fact the Create 2 is based on the 600 series I checked the wikipedia entry and figure the list will be:

  * Bump sensors (left and right)
  * Wheel drop sensors (left and right)
  * Four infrared "cliff sensors"
  * Acoustic-based dirt sensors
  * Optical sensor located in front of the vacuum bin
  * Virtual Wall Lighthouse sensor

Re: iRobot Announces Create 2: An Updated, Hackable Roomba

#15

Post by iandanforth »

Symmetry wrote: post #14
seidler wrote: post #12

Sorry, if it doesn't have LIDAR, I don't want it.

An onboard LIDAR would make it quite a bit more expensive. I think if I were to play with one of these I would find a friend with an unused Kinect and use that for the sensing.

What do you think about the Neato? Many robot hobbyists will buy one just to get its scanning range finder and it's in the same price range as a roomba.

Re: iRobot Announces Create 2: An Updated, Hackable Roomba

#16

Post by Animats »

iandanforth wrote: post #15
Symmetry wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An onboard LIDAR would make it quite a bit more expensive. I think if I were to play with one of these I would find a friend with an unused Kinect and use that for the sensing.

What do you think about the Neato? Many robot hobbyists will buy one just to get its scanning range finder and it's in the same price range as a roomba.

Now that would be more interesting. The Roomba is sense-deprived for a robot. It doesn't know where it is, and navigates by bumping into stuff. That's kind of lame. Hobbyists had those in the 1980s. Grey Walters' "turtles" did that in the late 1940s. Computing has made some progress since then.

By now, a hobbyist robot should have at least 2D SLAM, able to map its surroundings and navigate using the map.

Re: iRobot Announces Create 2: An Updated, Hackable Roomba

#19

Post by damon_c »

discardorama wrote: post #6

If I'm reading it correctly, the Create series does not have the vacuum components. I used to be a big fan of iRobot, but after going through 4 of their robots, I have soured on them. Their batteries would die right after the warranty period ended. Plastic parts broke off from regular use. Each of them ended in the recycling bin after 1.5 - 2 years of use.

Yeah. I too have a meter high, cylindrical Roomba graveyard.

Re: iRobot Announces Create 2: An Updated, Hackable Roomba

#20

Post by soylentcola »

Fuzzwah wrote: post #10
ivankirigin wrote: post #8

I used to work for iRobot's research devision, which isn't on the same team as the Roomba folks. I'm really excited to see this come back! I'm a bit surprised they haven't taken advantage of the smart phone revolution since 2007. There should be a dock for your phone. The basics would involve beaming back sensor data and sending movement comments. The phone would also come with a camera. Basically I'm wondering why t…

Looks like they've signed up for the R-Pi revolution instead. http://www.irobot.com/~/media/MainSite/PDFs/About/STEM/Creat... Makes me happy, since I'm a card carrying R-Pi nut.

Yeah, I'd prefer something like Pi as well. Rather than using my phone (which I would like to keep free for typical phone stuff) or buying a second device (can be awfully pricey), a RPi would be more flexible and potentially more affordable for students and tinkerers.

I'm sure plenty of us have an older smartphone around for projects and experiments but I think that just as many people sell or trade theirs in for a discount. That doesn't even take into consideration the issue with the variety of devices and types of docks out there. Something like a Pi is meant to be hacked and modded to fit into different use cases and you aren't automatically paying (both in terms of money and performance) for all of the overhead of general smartphone hardware and software.

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