The Roomba Combo j7+ Vacuum and Mop Uses AI to Handle Pet Mess
A robot cleaner smart enough to listen to your commands—and wise enough to avoid your dog’s mistakes.
Roomba Combo j7+
Photographer: Hannah Whitaker for Bloomberg Businessweek
Put a poorly house-trained dog under the same roof as a diligent but dumb robot vacuum, and you’re all but guaranteed a smeary pooptastrophe. IRobot Corp., which Amazon.com Inc. agreed to buy for $1.65 billion in August, amped up the brains of its $1,100 Roomba Combo j7+ by training its AI-based navigation system on more than 100 carefully sculpted models of pet mess, so it knows just what to avoid (if it doesn’t, a new bot is gratis). For the animal-free, the system also recognizes and steers around dozens of suction-snarling objects such as cables and socks while it mops and vacuums—and empties its own dustbin by returning to its dock.
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