The Roomba 980 uses several built-in sensors to build a map of your home as it cleans. It goes boldly forth, bumping into things until it learns the lay of the land. The more it cleans, the more it learns to keep track of areas and objects until it's mapped everything out and cleaned everything up.

Powerful; Good on rugs; Wi-Fi-enabled

Very expensive; Noisy

The long run time and the intuitive navigation of the iRobot Roomba 980 makes it a great choice for those with larger homes or multiple rooms -- or both. It syncs to your smartphone so you can start it from anywhere.

Syncs to phone; Very intuitive navigation; Long run time; Automatically returns to charging station

Pricey; Can miss some debris

Since the advent of smart AI-assisted speakers, the concept of smart homes has been widely adopted and even implemented around the world. The idea of leaving most household chores, even the basic ones, to a computer, has captured the imagination of people, unlike anything.

Vacuuming is a laborious chore that I both hate and love. How so Viewing the contents of the bin upon finish makes the chore worth it, but yet every time the chore comes to head I often skip it.

I thought I'd take a break for a minute while I still sort out my next piece for the Building a Smart Home Series, and talk about something in my house that is both smart & practical. I've been using for the last couple months the Roomba 980 robot vacuum and I must say I think I'm impressed.

Mashable Choice highlights the best of everything we cover, have experienced first-hand and would recommend to others. We have a ritual in my house. I bring home a random gadget, deposit it somewhere in my home and my wife asks me what it is, gives me side-eye and then ignores the gear until it is...

Robot vacuums are becoming more and more common, and with that increasing popularity comes an increase in competition. There are quite a few big names in the vacuum industry, but not many are as well

iRobot Roomba 980 review: A Wi-Fi connected, sensor packed, dust busting monster

You can control this Roomba even if you're not home.

This has been an absolute game changer in our home. We are a household with a golden retriever, a recently crawling infant and two parents that work full time. I was holding out on a robot vaccuum since I was skeptical that it would do a good enough job, but we realized we just couldn't keep up with...