The iRobot J7 may be smarter than your pet

On Sep 9, 2021

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The iRobot J7 vacuuming robot uses AI to identify obstacles. | Image credit: iRobot

Who says that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

What if your robotic vacuum cleaner actually identified obstacles in its path and avoided those obstacles, just like its bigger, industrial, autonomous mobile robot cousins? Well, the moment has finally arrived. iRobot announces the availability of the new Roomba^® j7+ robot vacuum and new features powered by iRobot Genius™ 3.0 Home Intelligence.

Let’s face it. Robotic vacuum cleaners and pet “accidents” don’t mix. It’s no fun to clean up a poop pile in the house, but let your robotic vacuum cleaner get a hold of the pile and you have a whole different situation on your hands, as the following video illustrates:

But it seems that iRobot listens to its customers, and the iRobot Roomba j7+ is a thoughtful, collaborative cleaning partner that delivers superior cleaning performance with every mission. Powered by iRobot Genius 3.0, and featuring PrecisionVision Navigation, the Roomba j7+ gets smarter with each use.

The robot learns how best to navigate your floors, remembering specific rooms and certain furniture, to clean where it’s most needed. It can also start cleaning automatically when you leave home and stop when you return.

The Roomba j7+ takes the time to understand your cleaning preferences, learning your cleaning rules, asking for and responding to feedback, and remembering how to react in the future. iRobot is now leveraging human robot owners as part of the machine learning / training feedback loop, to actively train each users robot what unique obstacles exist within the home.

It even recognizes and avoids cords and pet waste, giving you peace of mind that the job will get done. Backed by the Pet Owner’s Official Promise (P.O.O.P.), iRobot will replace any Roomba j7+ that doesn’t avoid pet waste.

“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. 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,” said Colin Angle, chairman and CEO of iRobot. “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.”

iRobot Genius 3.0 home intelligence

Available across iRobot’s portfolio of robot vacuums and mops,¹ iRobot Genius extends the company’s leadership in creating state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and personalized cleaning experiences. The latest digital features included in iRobot Genius 3.0 that are also compatible with the Roomba j7+ include:

Clean While I’m Away – Robots should work around your schedule. Using a phone’s location services, users can now create a defined boundary around their home so their smartphone will trigger the robot to automatically begin (and stop) cleaning when their phone leaves or returns to the boundary.
Smart Map Coaching and Room Name Suggestions – The robot will help guide new customers through their initial onboarding and subsequent cleaning jobs to personalize their Smart Map, ensuring that it is optimized to intelligently and efficiently navigate their home. It’ll even help facilitate Smart Map customization by auto-recommending room labels once the robot has finished learning the home’s floorplan and is ready to create the Smart Map.
Cleaning Time Estimates – Crunched for time? Forgot to run your robot but guests are on their way over? See just how long a cleaning job will take with new Clean Time Estimates. Available for iRobot Imprint Smart Mapping robots,¹customers can see a time estimate in the iRobot Home App based on the room – or rooms – they’ve chosen for a particular cleaning job.
Quiet Drive – If you need to clean a specific area, but need some quiet near-by, tell your robot to keep it down as it makes its way to and from cleaning jobs. Quiet drive will shut down vacuuming components when the robot is not in its active cleaning job.

“People have more important things to do than worry about vacuuming, so we developed the Roomba j7+ to be thoughtful, responsive and put people’s needs first,” said Keith Hartsfield, chief product officer at iRobot. “Powered by Genius, the Roomba j7+ incorporates many of the things we know our customers look for in a premium robot. It’s a powerful, hands-free cleaning system with cutting edge intelligence to detect and avoid obstacles, adapts to the user’s needs, cleans based on individual preferences and schedules and gets smarter over time. It also brings with it a beautiful design that fits seamlessly into the home. All of this gives the user assurance that the job will get done in a way that is tailored to their individual needs.”

Roomba j7+ robot vacuum, backed by the power of iRobot Genius

Identifies obstacles and avoids hazards

Powered by iRobot Genius, the Roomba j7+ doesn’t just learn your home, it reacts to it in real time with PrecisionVision Navigation, giving users the ability to identify and avoid common obstacles, such as cords and pet waste. If you drop your charging cord on the floor in the living room, the Roomba j7+ will see it and avoid it.

If your new puppy left a “surprise” in the hallway, the Roomba j7+ is guaranteed to detect and maneuver around it. With the ability to identify and anticipate walls and furniture, it is also able to slow its approach for a gentle clean around objects and along edges.

Combining this with Imprint™ Smart Mapping, the Roomba j7+ can learn a home’s floor plan, giving customers control to choose which rooms are cleaned when using the iRobot Home App or a voice assistant device. Backed by continuous over-the-air software updates provided by iRobot Genius, PrecisionVision Navigation will also get smarter over time, allowing the Roomba j7+ to identify an even greater number of obstacles and unlock new cleaning experiences.

Keeps you in the loop, follows your instruction

The cleaning improves the more you use the Roomba j7+. Thanks to thoughtful intelligence provided by iRobot Genius, the Roomba j7+ interactively learns your preferences and adapts to keep a cleaner home.

When the Roomba j7+ identifies a hazard or obstacle, it will send a photo to the iRobot Home App where you can instruct the robot to avoid or clean around the obstacle. You can also provide feedback in the iRobot Home App on how the Roomba j7+ should handle such obstacles in the future. This helps keep you in the loop and aware of any clutter or hazards, like pet waste, in your home. It also helps ensure that the robot will successfully complete the job.

So smart, it anticipates the mess

Your cleaning needs are taken care of – even the ones you don’t know about yet. With iRobot Genius, the Roomba j7+ learns how you like to clean and automatically gives you personalized suggestions, even factoring in times when your home may need more frequent cleaning – like pet-shedding or allergy seasons. Since the Roomba j7+ remembers the specific rooms and times you like to clean, it can suggest personalized cleaning schedules, like in the kitchen after breakfast. Enabled by iRobot Genius, the Roomba j7+ will even ask if you’d like to clean while you’re away and stop cleaning when you return, letting you enjoy the clean without noticing the cleaning. For an extra level of clean, Imprint^®Link Technology only from iRobot tells the Braava jet^® m6 robot to mop after the Roomba j7+ has finished vacuuming.

Designed to be in a class of its own

The Roomba j7+ robot and its Clean Base^® Automatic Dirt Disposal have been thoughtfully designed to blend into the home. The robot features an appealing spun metal finish and intuitive one-button design. The Clean Base has been redesigned from the ground-up to fit under tables and take up less space. Its premium, textured style and rich leather pull tab complement your home furnishings, and hidden storage ensures you always have an extra bag ready to go. With the Clean Base, you can forget about vacuuming for months at a time. It allows the Roomba j7+ robot vacuum to empty itself into an enclosed bag that doesn’t need to be replaced for up to 60 days – 2x longer than other brands claim. With the low-maintenance Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal system, there is no mess or cloud of dust when you empty it. Just dispose of the used bag and put a new one in the base.

Pricing and Availability

North America: The Roomba j7+ robot vacuum with Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal is available for purchase immediately in the U.S. and Canada starting at $849 USD on www.irobot.com. It will be available for pre-sale at select retailers beginning on September 12, 2021 and for immediate purchase at select retailers beginning on September 19, 2021. The Roomba j7+ robot vacuum will also be available as part of the iRobot Select membership program beginning in Q4 2021. The Roomba j7 robot vacuum can also be purchased without the Clean Base starting at $649 USD on www.irobot.com. Additional Dirt Disposal Bags can be purchased for $19.99 for a pack of three bags.

Rest of World: The Roomba j7+ and j7 robot vacuums are also available for purchase in Europe now. They will be introduced more broadly in other major regions during 2022.

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