iRobot Launches AI-Powered Roomba j7+ Vacuum That Can Avoid Your Pet’s Poop

iRobot is launching a new Roomba aimed at making domestic help in the modern smart home both smarter and more reliable.

According to a new press release, iRobot’s new robot vacuum cleaner, the iRobot Roomba j7+, features an amusing yet valuable addition: the ability to detect and avoid your pet’s poop.

“Smart home products often fail to live up to consumer expectations when they lack context of the home, cannot learn independently and require complex programming for basic functionality,” said Colin Angle, chairman and CEO of iRobot.

“We understand home environments and lifestyles are unique and that it’s important to offer intelligent, simple-to-use products that more thoughtfully work within the boundaries of house rules set by the user. The Roomba j7+ with iRobot Genius provides greater levels of personalization, new home automations and the ability to get smarter over time, allowing the robot to deliver a more intuitive cleaning experience so people have more time to do what’s most important to them.”

Rooba j7+ is powered by iRobot Genius 3.0, which includes PrecisionVision Navigation, a feature that enables the robot to learn floors, remember rooms and furniture, and can clean when you’re away and stop when you return.

According to the company, the new vacuum uses a built-in camera and machine learning technology to detect and automatically avoid common obstacles as small as phone charging cables, even in low-light conditions. It won’t be able to avoid shoes and socks at launch, but the company says it has already trained its machine learning software to identify and steer clear of pet waste.

iRobot is so confident in its new technology that it’s offering the j7+ with a P.O.O.P. (Pet Owner Official Promise) guarantee: If the robot fails to avoid solid pet waste within a year of your purchase, the company will give you a new one for free.

The company explains that the robot will send photos of objects to the iRobot app and owners will be able to tell the bot to either clean around the object or avoid it completely. Owners will also have the option to give feedback on how the bot should handle similar objects in the future. Users can also now issue voice commands for the j7/j7+ for specific cleaning instructions, like, “Clean by the front door.”

“The Roomba j7+ incorporates many of the things we know our customers look for in a premium robot,” iRobot chief product officer Keith Hartsfield said. “It’s a powerful, hands-free cleaning system that detects and avoids obstacles, adapts to the user’s needs, cleans based on individual preferences and schedules, and gets smarter over time.”

The Roomba j7+ robot vacuum with Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal retails for $1049.99 CAD and the Roomba j7 robot vacuum without the Clean Base can be purchased for $799.99 CAD on iRobot.ca.

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