In the recent years, Google has managed to find their way into our homes through devices like Google Home, where it works together with various smart home devices for voice activated features and also automation. Now it seems that Google will be teaming up with iRobot, the makers of the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner, to improve on our smart homes.This will rely on the indoor maps that a Roomba robot will create when it is cleaning your home. Since robots do not have “eyes”, the Rooba will try to map out your home as it goes about cleaning it so that in the future it has a better idea of where to go. Through that mapping data, Google and iRobot will attempt to integrate their platforms together so that in the future, more complex tasks might be able to be accomplished.
For example with the Roomba being able to map your home, Google could then assign it names so that you could setup a schedule for your Roomba to clean particular rooms. Or you could command it using voice commands via Google Home to clean an area of the house, like the kitchen, living room, and so on.
Speaking to The Verge, iRobot’s CEO Colin Angle also mentioned how this information could in the future lead to more awareness of our smart home devices. “This idea is that when you say, ‘OK Google, turn the lights on in the kitchen,’ you need to know what lights are in the kitchen. And if I say, ‘OK future iRobot robot with an arm, go get me a beer,’ it needs to know where the kitchen and the refrigerator are.”