Hands-On: The iRobot Dirt Dog
By Chuck CageIn Use
We decided to start our testing in the Toolmonger shop — at least part of the shop. Our automotive projects tend to leak — as most such projects do — and the one clear admonition we received from iRobot was no liquids; the ‘Dog is definitely not a wet vac. So to avoid running it into a pool of oil or coolant, we set the ‘Dog loose on the front portion of the shop. Separated from the rest by a 3/4″ to 1-1/4″ berm, the front part of the shop is home to our toolboxes, woodworking and metalworking tools, the welder, our workbench, and engine stands/crates.
I’d guess that if if there’s a hell for robots, it’d look something like this part of the shop. There are literally dozens of small nooks and crannys as well as varying-height-and-width obstacles. This is probably a far worse environment than the ‘Dog will see in most ’shops, but we thought we’d give it a shot anyway.
In normal use, the ‘Dog almost doesn’t require a user’s manual: You plop it down on the floor and push the “clean” button, which is exactly what we did. The ‘Dog ran forward about four feet, fell partially off the berm described above, and got stuck, issuing its “sad” tone.
It’s worth noting that most of the manual covers the different ways to deal with exceptions.
We righted the ‘Dog, pushed the “clean” button again, and it took off, running dilligently for about five minutes before it again caught on the berm. The issue seems to be that when the ‘Dog approaches the berm at a very shallow angle — almost parallel to it — the “cliff sensor” seems to miss the berm until it’s too late. The fact that the berm isn’t perfectly square might make this even worse.
On its third try, the ‘Dog ran for about 15 minutes, getting quite a bit of cleaning done before hanging up on the base of a tall oscillating fan. In this case, the fan base’s low, bevelled edge allowed the ‘Dog’s castering front wheel to jump over and into a depression, trapping it.
Though the ‘Dog got stuck other times as well, it’s enough to say that if you’re planning on using it in a cluttered shop enviroment, you’ll first need to take a little time to understand its difficulties and move things around to avoid stoppage.
Stoppage aside, the ‘Dog cleans quite well — even in tight areas and places you probably don’t. Its spinning brushes actually clean the floor more thoroughly than your shop vacuum, as they dislodge bits of leaves and other debris that’s slightly stuck to the floor. The ‘Dog also fits underneath very low objects — like our rolling toolboxes and portable swamp cooler — so it swept some areas that literally haven’t been swept since we moved into the shop.
To simulate more common usage, we took the ‘Dog home and set it loose in a standard two-car garage. It got stuck only once — just moments after start — then ran smoothly for about an hour, completely sweeping the garage floor.
One of our original concerns — the size of the robot’s debris bin — proved totally unfounded. After sweeping a relatively dirty garage twice, the bin wasn’t entirely full. Of course, if you were to run a board through your planer without a collections system, then set the ‘Dog loose on the 1/2″-deep pile of wood dust/chips, it’s going to fill the bin. But under any realistic circumstances, its bin is plenty big.
Read on to page 3 for our conclusions.
December 16th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Great review. I think I would rather use this on in my house than a regular roomba.
December 16th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
I’m curious how it would handle “swarf”, long ribbons of metal that you get when drilling or turning steel - they are hell on a shop vac, relaibly plugging the hose by getting hundg up on the ribbing.
So drill a bunch of 1/2″ holes in steel and aluminum on the drill press and send the “dog” through that…
December 18th, 2006 at 7:22 am
Greg, if you look at iRobot’s specs, they actually say to specifically _NOT_ use this inside on residential carpet, as it’s basically too “hardcore” (high RPM, hard bristles).
We have a Roomba for the house too, and “Roomba-proofing” seems like a common growing pain. Once you watch the bot have a few go’s at it, you’ll quickly realize what it’ll have troubles with, and it’s pretty quick to set the room up for a proper robot-scrubbing before you set it loose.
I’ve been asking the wife for one of these Dirt Dogs since I saw the press release a few months ago.
January 31st, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Thanks for a wonderful review of the dirt dog. I’ve been looking for a comprehensive review on it for a while, this is the best i’ve seen. I own a roomba and was considering a “dog” for my garage/workshop as soon as i heard about it. I think your review convinced me to get one. If you search around there are places selling it for $99.
thanks again!