New iRobot Roomba j7+ can dodge pet poo

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.

As far as RVCs have come in recent years, they continue to have several fundamental flaws. They still can’t climb stairs, they still struggle to deal with wires, and they still fail to get right into those corners and edges.

Perhaps most egregious of all: they do insist on ploughing through pet faeces, thus doing the very opposite of what they were bought to do.

Now iRobot, the biggest name in robot vacuum cleaners, claims to have addressed this messy issue. The Roomba j7+ features iRobot Genius 3.0 Home Intelligence, a new AI system that learns on the job.

It’s also more aware of its surroundings. Using PrecisionVision Navigation, the new Roomba has the ability to identify and circumvent objects such a cords and – hallelujah – pet waste.

So confident is iRobot in its new machine learning smarts, it’s provided the Pet Owner Official Promise (yes, that spells P.O.O.P.). In short, iRobot has pledged to replace any Roomba j7+ that doesn’t avoid solid pet waste.

It’s that promise that separates the Roomba j7+ from rivals making similar cack-jinking claims. We found the Roborock S6 MaxV‘s dung-dodging abilities to be solid (pun unintended), but Roborock won’t send you a whole new machine if your digital pet has its own accident.

Roomba claims that PrecisionVision Navigation will “get smarter over time” and “unlock new cleaning experiences”. The mind boggles.

The Roomba j7+ robot vacuum is available to buy now from iRobot’s website, with with its Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal unit (essentially a larger bin it empties itself into), for £900 / $849.