yeah i tried one similar to a roomba but it never cleaned the entire room. it was just randomly bouncing around, driving in circles, cleaning the same spots over and over. and it had a dust bin about the size of a marble (or so it seemed). this Neato vac cost almost 2x as much, but it actually has brains.
it actually acts "careful" when it's close to walls/furniture/etc and moves slowly, but once its out in an open area, it moves much faster to get done quicker. it's cool to watch it hugging tight around walls, corners, chair/table legs, etc, and getting all the crumbs and dog hair that always collect there. and since it's D-shaped and thus has a brush about the same size as our normal upright vacuum, it can get into corners and actually clean those as well, ans cover more area quicker. definitely worth the extra money IMHO. i set it to run mondays and fridays. just gotta remember not to leave things like phone chargers cords or socks laying around where the vac could eat them.
the real challenge is going to be getting the kids to clean up all their toys in the game room upstairs so we can let the robot loose up there without having the dust bin end up full of legos, barbie shoes/hats/whatever, and who knows what else.
