If you’ve got your eye on a new iRobot Roomba robot vacuum, you already know it can sweep or vacuum your whole home. While you can simply push the button to send out the Roomba or even ask your digital assistant to deploy it on a cleaning mission, the real power in a robot vacuum is its smarts. Today, that means enabling and using the smart mapping features.

How to use iRobot smart mapping

The iRobot Roomba bot vacs launched in the last few years, including the new Roomba Combo J7+, use sensors that can “see” around a home and map the space. Why do they need to map your home? To deliver a whole new level of cleaning and customization, of course! Once the robot knows your floor plan in detail, you can unlock the power to clean zones (that always dusty area in front of the trash can, for example) or rooms (the entry that is extra dirty after the morning rush).

How does an iRobot map a house?

The newer iRobot bots have plenty of smarts and a host of sensors that help them find their way around a home. These iRobot Roomba robots use a technology called vSLAM, or visual simultaneous localization and mapping. In a nutshell, as the bot moves around, it looks for unique areas that it considers markers and then remembers where those landmarks are so it can orient itself every time it leaves the base. It uses vSLAM to create what iRobot dubs Imprint Smart Maps. Your Smart Map can store multiple maps in its memory. Check out our guide on how to use multiple maps. If you’re having trouble with your bot, resetting it can help.