We have a new maid. His name is Jerry. He’s an iRobot Roomba 4105. Right now he’s cleaning the family room.
We’ve noted several idiosyncrasies. He prefers rooms without much furniture, or other floor-level decoration. He has trouble over metallic vent covers. He trapped himself on our dining room rug: it is mostly dark, except for a 2″ band of a light color; I think he thought he was about to fall over the stairs. He gets stuck under rocking chairs. And he doesn’t leave a nice, even pattern on the carpet. (That drives me nuts.) But he cleans well.
I’m not sure yet whether the preparation necessary for his cleaning takes more work than doing it myself, but I am sure that I would use a different pattern, and I wouldn’t take an hour a room.