running robots in the dark

[bs03]

I was wondering does anyone else run their robots in the dark and have they had any problems. My Braava Jet seems to be night blind.

I often start my robots, turn off the lights, and head up to bed. I don't consider my house to be truely dark and the robots don't seem to mind, until the Braava Jet.
At first the Braava seemed to work ok but it was new and I wanted to see what it could do. Then one night I started it in my very tiny bathroom and went to bed. At some point I realized it was still running. The water tank was empty and it had gone through a full charge for a 5x6 space. I was concerned it was broken so I went back to watching it. No trouble until I was comfortable again and left it in the dark. This was a larger room and I had gotten up for something. It wasn't doing its normal pattern for that room. It looked lost and confused so I stopped it.

Does the Braava need light to work or is mine not quite right?

I don't know if I should get it a nightlight or will that not be enough. For now it gets daytime running, so it hasn't been running.

[Atena]

I saw this in iRobot Customer Care: "Ensure the house has adequate light for the robot to navigate. Dark rooms can be challenging for the iAdapt® localization camera and can cause problems with navigation and coverage. Daylight or dim lighting is sufficient for Roomba to navigate effectively."
http://homesupport.irobot.com/app/answe ... whole-home.

In customer care they were talking about a Roomba 900 but the Braava Jet also uses iAdapt® navigation, so the idea should be the same, I think...

[bs03]

Thank you.

I went back through all of the Braava Jet stuff to see if I missed something. I can find no mention of it.

Well dim lighting is the most my robots ever get. I'm glad I never got a 900 series now.

[mfortuna]

It looks like the Jet doesn't use a nav cube. My old Mint uses a cube that projects something on the ceiling. I have run my Mint in complete darkness with no issues.

[jdong]

Just to clarify: The Braava Jet does not require any light. It's a pure bump-SLAM (is that the right term? If not, I call dibs on the trademark) robot, where it navigates by using odometry and remembering objects it hit. I almost always run it in a pitch black enclosed bathroom.

The Roomba 9xx vSLAM is light based, and it requires dim lighting to navigate effectively. And in effect, that's pretty dim. I've had luck with those green night light squares, as well as just having Phillips Hue bulbs on their lowest allowed brightness settings.

[Botty]

Did anyone definitively work out if the braava jet can run in the dark? I tried it but it was hard to tell if it was operating ok.

[vic7767]

Just to clarify: The Braava Jet does not require any light.

[Botty]

Yep, thanks. A few hours after I posted above I got hold of iRobot customer care who said

“As our robots are equipped with cliff-sensors which use infrared light to detect the floor under the robot, sometimes dark floors may interfere with the sensors and cause an issue. Total darkness in the room can also cause this issue but we cannot guarantee that the robot will have or will not have any trouble with that.

The cliff-sensors are a very important part of the robot's navigation system so we also do not advise using any methods found online to disable them, as this can lead to the robot falling down stairs or cliffs.

What I would advise you to run the robot with sufficient daylight as it shouldn't have any trouble.”

So it’s a bit ambiguous imo

[vic7767]

Dark non-reflecting surfaces are an issue with the IR Cliff sensor. However, darkness does not cause the IR Cliff sensor to not work. Therefore some dark surfaces may not work with the Cliff IR sensors but darkness does not cause Cliff IR sensors to fail.

[Botty]

Yeah. It’s annoying they can’t just give a straight answer.

[RIOTTO]

Did anyone definitively work out if the braava fly can continue running in lack of definition? I endeavored it yet it was hard to perceive whether it was working positive.