I bought a refurbished Roomba 530 on Woot in 2009, and it’s been an indispensable part of the household ever since. Sure, the cat hates it, it regularly knocks things over, and it somehow escapes its constraints and sneaks off into other parts of the house, but the point is, it cleans while I do something else.
It’s always a satisfying moment when I start the dishwasher, the washing machine, and Roomba at the same time and shout, “Get to work, robots!” and then leave.
One fateful day in 2018, I spilled some water* and Roomba, hapless as ever, bee-lined straight into it. It stopped. Its light turned red. It sang out some tones in a minor key that fit the rhythm of, “Uh-oh. What have I done?”
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