Why does the sweeping robot report an error when encountering a dark carpet?

In recent years, sweeping robots have been a smart home product for most homes, because they can solve the problem of cleaning the home. There are more and more brands of sweeping robots on the market. Take Roborock as an example. Not long ago, its launched sweeping robot——Roborock S7 MaxV Series. As a new generation of intelligent cleaning tools, we should pay attention not only to its cleaning ability, but also to its obstacle crossing ability and the sensor behind it.

Roborock Community
Roborock Community

In most family rooms, there are more or less obstacles. For example: floor wires, table corners and carpets, sweeping robots must be cleaned through bottom brushes, wheels and vacuum ports. Then the wires on the floor will wrap around the equipment and be blocked by the corners of the table. At this time, the sweeping robot must have enough adequate obstacle avoidance to complete the cleaning work. If the sweeping robot wants to be smarter, it needs the support of various sensors.

Why does the cliff sensor trigger an alarm when encountering a dark carpet?

But most people will encounter a problem. That is, sweeping robots can’t climb to dark carpets to clean them. When we start the robot next to the dark carpet, the machine will make an error and cannot start. Most people will want to know that this is just a dark carpet and why does it trigger the cliff sensor?

cliff sensor
cliff sensor on sweeping robots

It because when the sweeping robot encounters dark carpets or thresholds, It will think that there is a cliff ahead that hinders its work. The infrared sensor of the sweeping robot will emit a beam of infrared rays to the object, At the right distance, If there is no echo, it will judge that it has entered the dangerous area and triggers the alarm. Because black surfaces are more likely to absorb light radiation, infrared cliff sensors misjudgment. So that dark carpets and thresholds cannot be cleaned, which will cause inconvenience to many users.

There are some ways to block the cliff sensor. As shown in the figure below, covering the sensor with a white lid will make the sweeping robot think it can clean the dark carpet. You can also apply some white tape to the sensor for the same effect. But there is also a disadvantage. When it encounters stairs, it will fall down the stairs because of the cover of the cliff sensor. But at present, there is no good way to improve it, so we can only wait for subsequent sensor updates and upgrades.

white cliff cover on sweeping robot
white cliff cover

If you also encounter a situation where the sweeping robot encounters a dark carpet, it will report an error, you can choose to buy a cliff sensor cover.

For the cliff sensor cover purchase website, you can click here.

1 thought on “Why does the sweeping robot report an error when encountering a dark carpet?”

Leave a Comment