A great Roomba hack idea: Make "UV virtual walls"

[bpoag]

Here's an idea--Replace your "virtual wall" units with a Roomba capable of seeing UV-sensitive lines sprayed on the floor. Ultraviolet sprays are commonly available -- They spray on odorless and clear, but flouresce brightly under UV / blacklights. You can also buy UV LEDs from electronic supply catalogs. Theyre easy to obtain, and relatively cheap.

Instead of installing battery-powered virtual walls everywhere, you could simply walk around your home and spraypaint the thresholds of rooms you want the Roomba to avoid. Even better, you could (at least in thoery) spraypaint irregularly shaped sections of a room for the Roomba to stay within.

The hack would consist of a single UV LED, and a little optical sensor to see if it's there's a bright flourescent line beneath it. If it detects that it's driving over something that glows under the UV light, have it do a 180' turn and continue vaccuming.

And a more interesting use -- Killing scorpions. For those of you who don't live out here in the Arizona desert, scorpions are a common pest -- we have to worry about them creeping into our homes ontop of the usual household spiders and bugs everyone else has. Scorpions flouresce brightly under UV light. You could tell your Roomba to look around your house for places where it detects something glowing, and "spot clean" that area, either killing or capturing the damn thing if it finds one.

Clear UV paint:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20030227004.html
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... =WDVW&rd=1

UV LEDs for 60 cents:
http://www.lsdiodes.com/shop/index.php? ... keyword=UV

Scorpions under UV light:
http://johnbokma.com/pet/scorpion/detec ... -leds.html

[vic7767]

I need peel and strip. I may want the robot to go in an area that previously was blocked.

[bpoag]

I need peel and strip. I may want the robot to go in an area that previously was blocked.

No need for strips -- Just wash the area where you made the UV marks. Floor or carpet.

[roadknightlabs]

I need peel and strip. I may want the robot to go in an area that previously was blocked.

No need for strips -- Just wash the area where you made the UV marks. Floor or carpet.

No need for that, just send a UV_aware Scooba around to do it for you

[mgg]

Was this idea ever implemented? Sounds like a great idea, I'd appreciate any info on how to make this work.