Desktop Roomba Disposes of Dog Hair

Dog hair gets everywhere and we just have to accept that if we want to enjoy the privilege of owning a pet. But that doesn't mean we can't try to combat the menace of stray fur. Most dog owners have various hair-collecting tools for their floors, furniture, and clothes, but what about desktops, tables, and countertops? To keep those clean, Jared Dilley built a miniature Roomba to patrol his desk and other elevated surfaces.

This is actually an upgrade for a robot that Dilley already built. It is a tank-style rover robot small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. The robot's two drive motors operate under the control of an Arduino Uno R3 board via a motor driver shield. The original setup only had an ultrasonic sensor, which the robot used to detect obstacles. When it encountered something like a wall, the robot would turn and go in another direction — like a Roomba, but without the mapping capability.

Dilley attached a wiper cloth onto the back of that robot so it can perform like a motorized duster. But there was still one challenge: how to keep the robot from driving right off a table. The ultrasonic sensor only detects objects in front of the robot and Dilley needed something like the cliff sensor on a Roomba.

The solution was a pair of infrared sensors, mounted at the front two corners of the robot and pointing down towards the desk or table surface. Under normal conditions, the surface reflects the infrared light and the robot knows that it is safe to move forward. But if it reaches an edge, there is no longer a surface to reflect the light. The robot registers that change in state and alters its course to avoid the ledge.

Dilley didn't program any sophisticated mapping capability, so the robot just bounces around the desk like a DVD logo. But eventually it should cover most of the surface and wipe up the majority of the dog hair.