Finally, a way to clean up all those dots...
November 9, 2009 1:27 PM   Subscribe

Roomba Pac-Man! We've already discussed modding Roombas and Roomba art, but now these guys have made a fully playable real-life Pac-Man game using everyone's favorite robotic vacuum cleaner.
posted by dnesan (16 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Pft! The roomba isn't my favorite robotic vacuum cleaner... I prefer mega maid...
posted by Nanukthedog at 2:18 PM on November 9, 2009


Aw, see, this is why I love nerds!
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 2:26 PM on November 9, 2009


Dear internet: I love you.
posted by strixus at 2:46 PM on November 9, 2009


Oh come on, there should be at least a dozen snark-laden comments on this by now. The dry voiceover on the video, the slowness of the play, the need to cut out and arrange the tissue paper dots each time -- so many possibilities for mockery here.
posted by longsleeves at 2:49 PM on November 9, 2009


[raspberry in longsleeves's general direction]

This is awesome.
posted by yiftach at 2:55 PM on November 9, 2009


using everyone's favorite robotic vacuum cleaner

Using a special version of the Roomba designed for tinkering and some rather fancy additional hardware. Still, a fun project.

(But watching my standard Roomba struggling to explore the big and scary world it's living in is pretty entertaining too.)
posted by effbot at 3:18 PM on November 9, 2009


longsleeves: "Oh come on, there should be at least a dozen snark-laden comments on this by now. The dry voiceover on the video, the slowness of the play, the need to cut out and arrange the tissue paper dots each time -- so many possibilities for mockery here."

I was going to rag on how they couldn't find a way to have Roomba Pac-Man go out one tunnel and come in on the other side... but you kind of took the pleasure out of it.
posted by Joe Beese at 3:21 PM on November 9, 2009


And since when are the ghosts programmed to avoid collisions with each other in Pac-Man? Pffft. Wake me when they get roombas occupying the same space at the same time.
posted by scrowdid at 3:53 PM on November 9, 2009


Using a special version of the Roomba designed for tinkering and some rather fancy additional hardware. Still, a fun project.

Actually, it looks like the Pac-Man is a Roomba- it's sucking up the paper 'dots'. The others are definitely the Create model.
posted by potch at 4:21 PM on November 9, 2009


OMG could they have taken more of the fun out of it with that painfully dry video.
posted by davejay at 5:52 PM on November 9, 2009


Oh come on, there should be at least a dozen snark-laden comments on this by now. The dry voiceover on the video, the slowness of the play, the need to cut out and arrange the tissue paper dots each time -- so many possibilities for mockery here.

Not to mention the epic fail in drawing their Pac-Man with a mouth that travels through his whole damn face!
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 6:40 PM on November 9, 2009


They really needed to add a moving PacMan image to the top of the one Roomba, kind of like what this fellow did with LEDs: (wait til 0:50 for the fun)

btw, if you want to remote control your Roomba and your PC has Bluetooth, you can get or build a Bluetooth adapter and pretty quickly go about recreating something like this. See link in my profile if you're curious.
posted by todbot at 12:43 AM on November 10, 2009


This hack is pretty nifty, but I never did catch the Roomba thing in general because they seem so damn limited. Like, can they find their own charging stations yet, or do they still always come up a few feet short? And can they empty themselves somewhere when full, or do you still need to, like, remember to do that? Because they seem too far from unattended/automatic to be useful to me.

(Yeah, I would be a bad Roomba owner. The ASPCR would probably take it away from me.)
posted by rokusan at 1:09 AM on November 10, 2009


Like, can they find their own charging stations yet, or do they still always come up a few feet short? And can they empty themselves somewhere when full, or do you still need to, like, remember to do that? Because they seem too far from unattended/automatic to be useful to me.

Mine doesn't ever come up a few feet short from the charging station but often it manages to trap itself elsewhere int he apratment by snagging on clutter I should have removed from the ground, or closing a door on itself. Cleaning is a little annoying but easier than vacuuming by hand.
posted by grouse at 6:01 AM on November 10, 2009


The most intriguing part was the highly detailed, technical commentary. ;)
posted by bigbluepig at 5:16 PM on November 10, 2009


I'm not going to lie, I found the dry commentary surprisingly fascinating. But I guess that's just me. Probably not unrelated: I also end up watching my roomba tool around my apartment for at least five minutes whenever I switch it on before going to work.

Rokusan: Roombas find their way to their charging base most of the time, but you do need to empty them out manually. I'm a big fan of mine, but that's because I find vacuuming very tedious.
posted by dnesan at 9:09 PM on November 10, 2009


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