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Mapping wouldn't solve that issue at all. It's more about battery life, stairs and other obstacles. Covering the same areas a few times isn't a bug, it's a feature - I don't know how you vacuum but when I'm using an upright, I also go over the same area more than once.

Also, mapping isn't a trivial problem. I've done a little bit of work with wheeled robots myself and unless you have a good way of finding fixed reference points, you need to do some sophisticated and tricky stuff to compensate for sensor drift. It's not insoluble, but it'd take a lot more development than the current form.

It can do that already - for the most part. It will eat your socks and get stuck, but performs well around shoes, chairs, boxes, and most other obstacles.

Also, it is your house - that's the nice thing about it. With Roomba, I have a compelling reason to keep things marginally tidy and not to let entropy take hold. I'm not a neat person by nature but I still appreciate not having a bunch of crap on my floors.

Not even close. This monstrosity gives you most of the things you think you want (subject to the limitations of today's technology). It's inelegant, expensive, complicated, and does an amazingly bad job. Despite all of its extra sensors, power, and mapping, it has almost all of the limitations of Roomba - at 5x the price.

Based on what you said, what you really want is a general purpose bipedal servant robot. I'd like one myself. It sounds like Bill Gates may be able to help us out with that in a few years (well... maybe quite a few years).

In the meantime, I'm happy with a clever, relatively cheap 90% solution.

look at : http://www.electrolux.com/node442.asp Had one of those at home when I was a kid, and I think they still sell them. You could do the solar radiation trick.. but they are very picky about having a steady heat source (day and night)

Sure, just look at this one

An interesting iMac case mod .....

For example, what sports cars do you have in your garage? Ferrari or Porsche I'd assume.

I have a car built by Matra, which is branded Renault. So according to my papers I am driving something else than the brand tells me.

And what's the brand of your kitchen sink?

With kitchen installations it gets complicated. Often the different brands are selling the same utility for the same job. Dishwashers in Europe are often built by Electrolux, but sold as Whirlpool, Siemens, Bosch, AEG... Ovens often leave a Siemens facility, and then they are branded Whirlpool, Siemens, Bosch, AEG...
Same with floppy disks. There was one facility, which produced some 70% of all worldwide sales of floppydisks. But no brand ever reached more than 20% of the market.

Btw: My kitchen sink is called EMSEN .

Trilobite

Trilobite

The Swedish house appliance manufacturer Electrolux has a model called Trilobite which has been around for a couple of years.

I haven't seen this sucker in action, but if memory serves me correctly it should be able to move around your home on flat surfaces, avoid obstacles and return to the power station.

Trilobyte. European tech kicks ass. Harharhar!
Honestly now: If I'll ever get a vacuumbot it will be this one. This Trilobyte sucker has some serious tech inside. It actually learns the shapes of the floor it cleans and maneuvers through and past furniture. It starts at programmable time (when you're out of the house) and goes back to it's recharge station when finished. THAT is a vacubot. That other one is a toy that will chrush to chunky kibbles if I accidentally step on it. Or make that 'on purpose'. :-)

• http://diwww.epfl.ch/lami/robot s/K-family/vacuum.html
  
• http://www.eureka.com/whatsnew/robotvac.h tm. Hmmm, this looks, *exactly* like Electrolux's, and the two pics there are identical to ones found on Electrolux's site.
  

If you are going to throw out the refridgerator can I suggest an Electolux as a replacement?