We do know that when one talks about the name Roomba, chances are, the image of an automatic vacuum cleaner will pop into mind. That is a given, actually, especially when you take into consideration how the brand name has been built on that particular strength over the years. While not many people will have any kind of grudges against the Roomba, astronomers do.
In fact, a handful of astronomers happen to be extremely upset about the Roomba automatic lawn mower, where it seems that the iRobot Roomba has some radio spectrum issues that will interfere with the astronomer’s hobby. Basically, the iRobot’s FCC filing mentioned that one will have to dig a trench along the perimeter of a lawn, before installing a wire which will create the electronic fence required to make sure that the iRobot Rooba lawn mower does not end up a mile away from its original area of roaming.
Astronomers are not happy because the frequency band which was proposed by the FCC for the lawnbot (6240-6740 MHz) is the same one that a handful enormous radio telescopes work on. Astronomers hope that the FCC will do their bit to protect the astronomers’ share of the radio spectrum in order for their telescopes to continue observing methanol. Sounds rather bizarre, but stranger things have happened.