Hacking Roomba: ExtremeTech

The jetsons would be proud

A gizmo as cool as Roomba just begs to be hacked. Now, with this book and the official ROI specification furnished by iRobot®, you can become the robotic engineer you dreamed of being when you were 10. Build a Bluetooth interface for your Roomba. Turn it into an artist. Install Linux on it and give it a new brain. Some hacks are functional, others are purely fun. All of them let you play with robotics, and not one will void your warranty. You could say it’s a clean sweep.

Fun ways to work the Roomba

All this — and it will still clean your floor!

1. Build a serial interface tether
2. Set up a Bluetooth® interface
3. Drive Roomba
4. Play with sensors
5. Make it sing
6. Create a Roomba artist
7. Use your Roomba as a mouse
8. Connect Roomba to the Net
9. Wi-Fi your Roomba
10. Replace Roomba’s brain
11. Install Roomba-cam
12. Put Linux® on Roomba

Companion Web site

Get the official iRobot Roomba Open Interface (ROI) specification and all code presented in the book in ready-to-run form at www.wiley.com/go/extremetech

Tod E. Kurt has engineered hardware and software for robotic camera systems that went to Mars. Although he has degrees in electrical engineering and physics, Tod’s career as a robotics hacker really began when he took apart his BigTrak, radio-controlled car, and chemistry set box to build an upright programmable robot when he was 12.