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Oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum you build yourself
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- teddyh 3mo agoNo information about whether it will run Valetudo.
- darlachaps 3mo agoWhy would it run Valetudo? Thats a product for rooted, closed-source vacuums. Let alone why would someone want to attract the toxic culture that is the Valetudo creator and community? This project seems like AI slop, but at this point that’s better than toxic dictators.
- breznev 3mo agoHeh that was my first thought upon seeing this headline: how will the Valetudo guy contort himself to get upset about this to the tune of an unhinged screed this time?
- fh973 3mo agoValetudo is an API proxy to control robots via an associated app in order to avoid vendor clouds. It is not a robot firmware and has no role here.
- kadoban 3mo agoIt could still be the UI for this, if they wanted to, and they just implement the guts behind it with that in mind. It's not everything, but the UI is still something you can ~skip.
- frio 3mo agoI am bone tired of slop. This looks like a useful thing to build (the cameras in existing closed source robo vacuums creep me out), but when people don't even write their announcement blog post by hand it gives me zero confidence in the project getting anywhere meaningful. Perhaps not the place to share this, but it's depressing. I hope this proves me wrong.
- jimnotgym 3mo agoIsn't a AI generated blog post better than someone building a useful thing and nobody hearing about it?
- Gigachad 3mo agoThe AI slop is noise pushing out valuable posts someone put effort in to.
- Systemerror7A69 3mo agoIt's a bit of an indicator about the effort they put into it. If they don't even write their blogpost themselves the question of "how much effort and thought did they put into the rest of their code / product". Now, obviously they might just be bad at writing blogposts but surprisingly often it seems to be a decent red flag. Because the thing is that the less effort you put into that the more anyone can just...reproduce the idea with their own LLM. Even if s.o buil a cool thing and wants to share it with the world, if all they did was prompt Claude for a weekend what is stopping me from just doing it myself? Then I can even get it however I want.
- camel_gopher 3mo agoOr the time they had available. Maybe they have a full time job, parents to care for, kids to care for. But still they wanted to scratch the itch.
- flexagoon 3mo agoIf someone has the time and opportunity to create a robot vacuum from scratch, they probably also have the time to write a short introduction for it
- TimXare 3mo ago[dead]
- TimXare 3mo ago[dead]
- shaunkoh 3mo agoEven though it’s vibe coded, I like the idea of an open source repairable robot vacuum. The current generation of them are notoriously not built to last / be repairable.
- fluidcruft 3mo agoAgreed. I can code so I don't care whether it's vibecoded or whatever to bootstrap. Them working on designing hardware is what matters to me. I'll definitely keep an eye out for the kit, I don't have a lot of patience for hunting parts but would love to play with this.
- throwaway219450 3mo agoThe issue I have is the documentation and “status” is slop. Looking at the repo, how much of it is even real? There’s supposed to be a build-along on YouTube but nothing there yet. The BoM is a bunch of aliexpress modules which is ok, but what about the chassis? Is that image generated? The RFC calls to generate accurate models for the components, but the render looks like a full assembly?
- fluidcruft 3mo agoWhen they get to the point of shipping a kit, why would I care? It's open source, just fix things. It's not rocket science, I'm just no good at working out the baseline machine that has parts to do the things. So I can't help at this point. I don't expect a finished product. The value to me is the customizability and figuring out how to make it do what I want it to do. I'm sure that's not for everyone but like I have fingers. I can type. I can fix things. Slop is perfectly fine as a first draft because I'm envisioning a community of builders not a bunch of entitled twats who should just buy a Roomba.
- progval 3mo agoBut it's not even a first draft. There are only pictures and markdown files.
- AussieWog93 3mo agoMan I wish was able to participate in this project.
- colordrops 3mo agoWhat's stopping you?
- AussieWog93 3mo ago4 young kids, 2 businesses (plus one more launching soon), health problems and a terrible housing market that won't let me slow down.
- holistio 3mo agoI just can't say how much I want to see the growth of open hardware.
- utopiah 3mo agoIf you are not already familiar with https://www.crowdsupply.com https://www.crowdsupply.com then check it out, both to buy but also consider selling your own work.
- sqdiaz 3mo agoPersonally, I find open hardware to be the selling point for devices that are supposedly running open source. If I can't change the parts/components, there's really no point.
- skyberrys 3mo agoThe name is exciting to me. I've been a multiple time robot vacuum owner and it does have an appeal to be able to see a fresh build dissected like this. Why not contribute to this project instead of having a go all on my own, except of course with my AI helpers. I could pick the vacuum control board for the motors and sensors. I have some thoughts on brushes too. It's a good point, vibe coding does lend itself to fast splitting among developers with the intent of recombining quickly too into a larger project.
- winterbourne 3mo agoNice! This is just what I'm looking for. An old Roomba 880 served us well until it could no longer charge its battery, even a new one. The AI slop on the site is not appealing, but it could also mean that the project will be parallelized successfully.
- wisdomseaker 3mo agoAre robot vacuums always circular, wouldn't a single 90 degree or similar section be useful for accessing corners
- stevewodil 3mo agoMostly circular, some have slightly asymmetric shapes like Eufy e28. The mid range and higher typically have an extending arm that handles edges or corners
- Bairfhionn 3mo agoThe brushes usually don't go all the way to the sides of the vacuum, that's why many of them have an additional circular brush on the side to get into the corners and scoop the dirt to the big brushes in the middle. No need for edges, also makes navigating through narrow things easier.
- throwaway219450 3mo agoBeing circular allows for zero clearance turns. If you imagine a square robot traversing a wall and approaching a 90 degree inside corner, it can’t make the turn and would also be unable to make a perpendicular move to get more space. That said Eufy, Makita and others make square-ish robots.
- mohamedkoubaa 3mo agoIt can easily make the turn if only one quadrant was square and it didn't approach the wall with that quadrant pointing forward
- bgnn 3mo agoNeato used to have a straight edge with 90 degree corners on both front edges. My Neato D7 is thr best robot vacuum I had. Unfortunately they shut down their cloud services, so it's useless now.
- lovlar 3mo ago> oomwoo is organized so the community can build it in parallel. The robot and its software are split into self-contained modules. You pick whatever module interests you, work on it whenever you want, and submit your work as a pull request. Multiple people can tackle the same module — the best solution surfaces over time. I think one major advantage of open source over commercial alternatives, is the possibility of endless improvements. Similarly, 3d printing as a manufacturing method allows for a short iterative cycle, high degree of design freedom, customisation as a product feature, local production, and an high degree of repairability. It’s going to be interesting to see how well git(hub) and discord serves as collaborative tools in this case. Hardware files are often binary, hardware components have complex interfaces between them, and hence depends more on human communication and collaboration. I really hope this project succeeds. I’d love a cloud free robot vacuum that I can trust.
- deanc 3mo agoInteresting project. Aren't most modern robot vacuum's using image processing to determine whether to stop or not now though? How is Lidar going to help you avoid the cat's diarrhoea on the rug?
- oliwarner 3mo agoThere's a camera module in the bill of materials. I suspect it uses both.
- oliwarner 3mo agoThe hardware is an issue, not because it's bad but because it's massively expensive to buy the components piecemeal. You can purchase a lidar vac for £70-80 now. Even if you only replaced the brains, that's a quarter of the price of a Oomwoo. The only upgrade I'd want is self-emptying. You'd probably have to relocate the charging contacts but it seems highly achievable. Or you could break up an existing vac for the parts. You'd get the lidar, bumper, ToF, cliff sensors, motors and wheels, perhaps even some seals for your printed parts. Again, much cheaper, especially if you shop on the used market (I can get a whole working vac for the price of new wheels). All these robots use common parts so the risk of getting it wrong is very small. My point is perhaps they could coalesce around a common white label option unit or set of parts currently sold as a vacuum.
- haellsigh 3mo agoFor that, there's https://valetudo.cloud/ https://valetudo.cloud/ that supports a number of models from different brands.
- RobotToaster 3mo agoNone are particularly easy to flash, and the dev seems to have no interest in making it more accessible.
- pbmonster 3mo agoThere's much to criticize about the dev, but there's really no way to make it significantly easier. Most robovac companies just don't want you to flash the firmware. The dev opposes selling the connector PCBs, but people have always ignored that and sold them online. They're not hard to find, but having the PCB is really only the first step.
- hju22_-3 3mo ago> There's much to criticize about the dev, but there's really no way to make it significantly easier. Not banning people that want to buy a flashing kit instead of making one would be a start. I for one would learn nothing, and wanting privacy shouldn't require an arbitrary skill when unnecessary like in this case. Not even mentioning that buying the parts is prohibitively expensive compared to some finished kits I've seen.
- taffydavid 3mo agoGreat, now do a lawn mower!
- mrbigbob 3mo agosomething that might be up your alley called OpenMower https://github.com/ClemensElflein/OpenMower https://github.com/ClemensElflein/OpenMower
- kbouck 3mo agomy interest in this would be to customize the cleaning plan/logic... especially regarding traversing difficult carpets edges (which my roborock struggles with) maybe something like: - this specific part of the carpet is the best place to enter onto it - once successfully on a carpet, stay on it until done cleaning it
- sevg 3mo agoThe name reminds me of Woomba, the hilarious SNL parody of Roomba back when it was initially going mainstream: https://youtu.be/gqesEYUXr78 https://youtu.be/gqesEYUXr78
- binaryturtle 3mo agoI wonder if there's a project like there's OpenWRT for routers, just for vacuum robots? Where you just can buy some device form a normal online shop, then flash your custom firmware, and off you go with a privacy respecting fellow that doesn't film you and doesn't send everything to some US or Chinese cloud. :) (I still use a traditional vacuum here, because all the privacy and snooping aspects of those robot thingies.)
- theblazehen 3mo agoThere is! https://valetudo.cloud/ https://valetudo.cloud/
- goodpoint 3mo agoIt's not replacing the firmware.
- riyajoshi 3mo agoLooks very cool.
- love0972 3mo agoIf it can take out the trash and chat with me by voice, I think it’s a great gadget.
- j1000 3mo agoLmao this repo is 20 days old, but description is written like it's Linux.
- bicepjai 3mo agoAs someone who works across software, hardware, and deep learning, this project makes me happy. My $1000+ vacuum will happily get stuck on the cloth mat, eat all our lego, and it has seen a hundred times, no memory, no meaningful object reasoning, just a marketing claim of intelligence propping up the price. This is something I will definitely play with.
- goodwillhunting 3mo agoI've always wondered why the Robo mops have lagged so far behind the vacs, to the point that wirecutter (at least as of last year) wouldn't even recommend one. You'd think they'd be on par by now even with the added complexity of water. Pool robots deal with that quite well.
- snapplebobapple 3mo agoWonder why they didnt use valetudo?
- iliaov 3mo agoHi, I'm the guy behind OOMWOO. I just found this post. Let me try replying. LLM slop - noted, acknowledged. I'm allergic to LLM slop myself. I'll rewrite the linked post tonight (and the repo over next week or two). Hardware is an issue/expensive - respectfully, I have to push back. I've built 6+ robots (ROS2), sourced parts from China (usually AliExpress), designed/manufactured/sold robot PCBs for years. A 2D LiDAR (from old vacuums) off AliExpress costs $15 retail with free shipping to the US. It won't come in a nice retail box, just bubblewrap. Proof - open aliexpress dot us/item/3256807153970373.html. Buying 10 pcs gets me $9/ea. A pair of driving wheel assemblies I just sourced for OOMWOO (wheels, motors, wheels, tires, wheel drop sensors, cabling with connector fit Roborock S4/5/45/50/51/52/55 Max, S7/Pro/MaxV, E4/E5/45/50/55, G10, T7S/S+, S6/60/65 Pure/MaxV, S70/75, Q5/7) cost $24-$33 (the entire pair). Proof aliexpress dot us/item/3256811615892849.html $22.19 + free shipping today. I've just source fans - 10kPa $10 free shipping Dreame aliexpress dot us/item/3256810170666194.html. I've visited vacuum cleaner robot ODMs in China. In 1000 MoQ prices drop to a fraction of the retail above. I'd like to build a large community to (someday) get the pricing power, level up from ordering off AliExpress. Repo is just text - yes, 3 weeks old, out-of-the-box software development environment (Docker ROS2 based) is in another repo github dot com makerspet oomwoo-install, step-by-step tutorials on makerspet dot com /learn. Pull image, paste CLI commands and simulate OOMWOO in 15 minutes. ROS2 robot description page is another repo makerspet oomwoo-one The PCB will be in yet another repo makerspet oomwoo-io-board, I'll publish it shortly. Open source vac reference 3D design (I did a consumer vac teardown, got it converted to STEP) is remakeai / vacuum_cleaner_teardown . 3D design not available - correct, not yet. I've got to source parts first. That said, no need to wait. I've hacked an existing consumer vac, connected it to ROS2, practically full control. So, you can develop OOMWOO software, test it on a real vac - while 3D design comes together. That vac setup is included in the oomwoo-install image. Repo - remakeai / vacuum_ros2_bridge. I've written step-by-step tutorials (both physical bringup and Gazebo/ROS2 sim) on makerspet dot com / learn Why they didnt use Valetudo - I'm a big fan of Valetudo, Dennis Giese, robotinfo dot dev. I hacked my Dreame L10S and it runs Valetudo. I'd like OOMWOO to be local, no-cloud-require like Valetudo. Valetudo cuts the cloud, doesn't give full direct control (sometimes partial) of vac's motors/sensors/encoders/LiDAR. Example - to fix my vac's SLAM, I need to rip out stock firmware, replace with mine. Not possible with Valetudo. Is the point to make a product or not - I'd like to make a product, but not 1st version. I have 6 vacuum robots (all with LiDAR, some expensive), all have problems - pet hair tangling, getting stuck under the bed, stuck on ramp, getting lost, mopping same spot over and over again, chewing up cables, doesn't vacuum under furniture with loose cover (can get under the cover easily, but won't). I'm tired of that, I want to fix those. Is this a one person project, vibe coding - I'm a solo tech founder in California with Upwork freelancer team and Claude Code. One freelancer for PCB, one 3D design (he 3D scanned consumer vac teardown into STEP that I just open sourced). One has made Unity sim to batch-generate 2D LiDAR data to train object recognition for OOMWOO. One developed/trained ML recognition to recognize 2D LiDAR point clouds. Two (sourcing/PM) team members in China when I visited. Will it be able to take out trash, chat with me by voice - Yes! Just not 1st version. I want OOMWOO to run apps someday - patrol home for security, move things around (wheeled carts with trash/pizza). Let enthusiasts bolt on LeRobot arm(s). I wish to participate - please join the Discord, invite discord dot gg/3y2JKz5T25 You are most welcome! Half a dozen requests for contribution are ready and waiting.