YouTuber builds Roomba that swears at collisions

A YouTuber built a Roomba that yells when it bumps into something. He connected a Raspberry Pi to the sensors of the vacuum cleaner robot. Roomba screams, curses, and howls when the sensors encounter an object.

The scolding vacuum cleaner was created by Michael Reeves, a popular YouTuber who is more likely to build robots and other gadgets. He rebuilt his Roomba at the request of “hundreds of viewers who asked.” The robot can swear, but there’s also a ‘kid-friendly’ mode that only screams pain. When Reeves hits the Roomba, he kindly asks if he wants to stop.

Reeves connected a Raspberry Pi to the Roomba’s sensors. If they encounter something, a random audio file will be played. Reprogramming the Roomba wasn’t even difficult, Reeves says. “You just put a few audio files on the Raspberry Pi, and that’s it.” The Pi is linked to a Bluetooth speaker that is also located on the inside of the Roomba. The vacuum cleaner no longer does the vacuuming after the mod, because placing the Pi and the speaker in the housing required space that the Roomba needed to perform its original task.