Building an Open-Source Robot Vacuum – Meet Oomwoo

Free worldwide shiping on $150+ Building an Open-Source Robot Vacuum — Meet OOMWOO I’m starting a new build-in-public project: oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum you build yourself. Raspberry Pi, ROS 2, 2D LiDAR, Home Assistant, 3D printed, local-first — and open from the first commit. Today I’m kicking off my most ambitious Maker’s Pet project yet: oomwoo, an open-source home robot vacuum that you can build yourself. Open hardware, open firmware, open software — and built in public, from the first commit. No cloud required. No vendor lock-in. It maps your home with an affordable 2D LiDAR and navigates on its own, runs locally, and integrates natively with Home Assistant. If you’re into Raspberry Pi, ROS 2, 3D printing, or just the idea of owning a vacuum you fully understand and control — this one’s for you. About the name: “oomwoo” is a rotational ambigram — it reads the same flipped 180°, just like the robot itself roaming your floor in every direction. What oomwoo is oomwoo is a build-it-yourself robot vacuum designed for the maker community: - Affordable and fully open — hardware, software, and firmware - 2D LiDAR mapping and autonomous navigation with ROS 2 / Nav2 - Native Home Assistant integration for local control - 3D-printable, documented, hackable chassis - Local-first — no cloud needed for everyday cleaning, ever - Home-appliance quality — not a throwaway build - Step-by-step, zero-to-hero build instructions, with a complete bill of materials so you can source every part yourself Optional extras — cloud features, and eventually an app store of ROS 2 apps to customize how your vacuum behaves — will layer on top. But the core promise never changes: the vacuum always works cloud-free and local, out of the box. Where the project is today This is genuinely early — and that’s the point of building in public. The first milestone (v0) is a bare-bones, working build: - 3D-printed chassis - ROS 2 Gazebo simulation - LiDAR with manual SLAM - ROS 2 on a Raspberry Pi 5 and/or ESP32 running micro-ROS (final architecture still being decided) The open-source deliverables I’m working toward: bill of materials, 3D-printable files, ROS 2 packages, firmware, a motor-driver and sensor PCB, full build / bringup / troubleshooting docs, and demo videos. Build it with me — massively in parallel oomwoo is organized so the community can build it in parallel. The robot and its software are split into self-contained modules. You pick whatever module interests you, work on it whenever you want, and submit your work as a pull request. Multiple people can tackle the same module — the best solution surfaces over time. Modules ready to start right now include: - ROS 2 URDF + Gazebo simulation — robot model, TF, bumper, sim - First clean — coverage cleaning while SLAM-mapping and exploring - Dust bin — design, 3D print, and test - Vacuum fan / blower assembly — blower motor, impeller, volute housing If you’d like to jump in, the GitHub repo has the module list, the architecture doc, and contribution guidelines. Follow along I’ll be sharing progress, dead ends, and wins as they happen: - GitHub: github.com/makerspet/oomwoo — code, docs, and discussions - Discord: join the build chat - YouTube: build-in-public channel - Reddit: r/ArduinoAndRobotics - X: @0OMWO0 Follow OOMWOO build Open-source robot vacuum community build updates Parts Kit Everything about oomwoo stays open — you can source every part yourself. If you’d rather skip the parts hunt, a convenience kit (motors, PCB, brushes, gaskets, LiDAR) will be available here at Maker’s Pet, from the same maker behind this project. The kit is a convenience, never a requirement. More oomwoo: repos & tutorials - Main project (RFCs, BOM, design docs): github.com/makerspet/oomwoo - oomwoo-one — first model, ROS 2 + Gazebo simulation: github.com/makerspet/oomwoo-one - oomwoo-install — ROS 2 / Docker dev environment: github.com/makerspet/oomwoo-install - Tutorial: How to source the BOM for oomwoo 36 Comments Would like to know how much would the purchase cost for the parts for this project ?, thank you. Hi Ruben, I’m researching sourced parts and should have a ballpark cost estimate in a week or so. That said, the target budget is $100~$200 + Raspberry Pi 5 4Gb to build a mid-range $500-$600 vacuum. This includes a mid-range suction module, rotating mops, obstacle avoidance with color + distance cameras. Here is a living list of modules + which to source vs 3D print https://github.com/makerspet/oomwoo/blob/main/docs/design-document.md . I appreciate your input! This is fantastic! Out of curiosity, given the high availability of cheap spare parts on sites like eBay or AliExpress for Chinese-branded vacuums, was it considered to perhaps piggyback on those for more complex parts? Hi David, reusing AliExpress Chinese parts – yes, absolutely. This is exactly the plan – source off AliExpress motors, sensors, vacuum assembly. 3D print enclosure, bumper, brackets, dock. Here is the living source vs. 3D print document with BoM https://github.com/makerspet/oomwoo/blob/main/docs/design-document.md Cool idea. Subscribed Could an older rpi 3b+ work? Hi Shayne, LiDAR mapping will need 4GB RAM minimum at first. Raspberry Pi 3B+ 1GB might be too tight for first release. That said, I’ve seen plenty of vacuums running with less than 1GB RAM. So, the answer is “yes, but not in first release”. Is there any reason I cant use an existing vac as the base? Just scrap the onboard pcb but use everything else I can? I’ll try making a version to retrofit existing vacuums – likely by mounting a Raspberry Pi, a LiDAR, and I/O board (replacing the internal/original PCB). That said, here are the difficulties: 1) the internal PCB likely has docking IR sensors built in. So, removing the internal PCB can break docking. Same for bumper IR sensors, camera. This can be worked around, say, by making a simple placeholder PCB to replace the original. 2) There are so many consumer vacuum cleaner models out there. So, The I/O board will have to take care to support the many different motors, voltages, sensors.But I think retrofitting is mostly doable, if laborious. Could it be designed so, that it would be possible optionally to have emptying dock in later phase, preferably bagless? Something similar my current roborock S7 maxV+ ? It empties the robot’s bin through the same channel it vacuums floors but in reverse direction. Self-emptying dock – yes, absolutely. Roborock S7 maxV+ style auto-empty – I’ll look into this closely. I think it’s doable technically. Awesone This is exactly what I was looking for last months/years. I can barely help you with this project, but I will keep my finger crossed. Great project! Since Roomba was bought out by one of the antrichrist companies, roomba no longer works. Is it possible to buy the software to download locally to run something like a roomba and forego the antichrist company completely? Thanks. Hello, I thought Roombas kept working after the iRobot bankruptcy. I’ve just tried Googling that and Google says so as well. I don’t have a Roomba myself and I don’t quite know about its software for download. But why don’t you try asking your question on Reddit in the vacuum cleaners group? https://reddit.com/r/VacuumCleaners Super excited to follow this! Don’t know if you’ve seen this project: https://valetudo.cloud/ but it may have some helpful bits it’s done built off reverse engineering other robot vacuums via 0 days. Hi thebeae, thanks for the pointer. I’m a big fan of Valetudo, robotinfo.dev and Dennis Giese. I’ve hacked and installed Valetudo on my Dreame (and it works well). That was probably the plan, but you should print the logo in capital letters because then it says the same thing when read upside down. [OOMWOO] All capital letters – sounds good! Yes, it was picked to read same upside down – for a bit of character and fun. Hey! Incredible project! Just of curiosity… do you have the final projected cost of the overall project? What it would be compared to similar Robot Vacuum of the market? Regards BrunoHi Bruno, not final BoM. I should have a rough BoM mid-July and a final one end of August. The BoM is here (a placeholder for now) https://github.com/makerspet/oomwoo/blob/main/BOM.md The goal is to build a mid-tier vacuum, say $600 for $200 in parts plus bring-your-own Raspberry Pi 4/5. great I can’t help you directly with this project because I don’t have the necessary skills, but the open-source community has been waiting for a solid project like this for a very long time.2 3To help you, here are a couple of websites that might interest you or prove useful:4 5https://wolley.se/6https://github.com/awesome-vacuum/awesome-vacuum7 8Good luck with the project! It’s very ambitious, but also incredibly exciting and valuable for digital independence from the major brands. I can’t help you directly with this project because I don’t have the necessary skills, but the open-source community has been waiting for a solid project like this for a very long time. To support your work, I would like to share a couple of resources that might be useful or inspiring: https://wolley.se/ https://github.com/awesome-vacuum/awesome-vacuumGood luck with this project! It’s certainly ambitious, but it’s also an incredibly exciting and worthwhile endeavor. A truly open and well-designed robot vacuum platform could make a real difference for digital independence, user freedom, and reducing reliance on the major brands. I sincerely hope your project succeeds and gains the community support it deserves. Pepe, no worries and thank you for the links! I’m looking at Wolley now. […] Maker’s Pet представила oomwoo — робот-пылесос […] […] Pet has launched oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum that owners build themselves. The robot works by mapping the home with […] […] Pet has launched oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum that owners build themselves. The robot works by mapping the home with […] […] lansat proiectul oomwoo, un robot aspirator open-source pe care proprietarii îl construiesc singuri. Robotul […] Why Rpi 5? I believe Rpi Zero 2W could do it. Also old Android phone could do, if damn Google make unpossible for root them. Hi Veijo, you are right, a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W can control a robot vacuum cleaner with LiDAR. For example, Roborock S5 uses an Allwinner R16 CPU with 4x ARM Cortex-A7 cores clocked up to 1.2GHz with 512MB RAM and 4GB eMMC. Compared to that, Raspberry Pi Zero 2W uses 4x 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 cores, 512MB of RAM and an SD card. Grossly simplifying, both look like same class of performance. That said, there are two problems. 1. The software – Roborock robot firmware is closed source, we cannot reuse it. I have to reuse (or make) an open-source to do LiDAR mapping, navigation, robot control. The only open-source robot software available today that’s popular, well-supported, works out-of-the-box and can be deployed relatively quickly is Robot Operating System verion 2 (ROS 2) . This software requires 4GB RAM minimum and a Raspberry Pi 4 caliber board or better. 2. Good obstacle avoidance – robot vacuum cleaners with good obstacle avoidance use camera to recognize and avoid obstacles. Often, two 1080p color cameras are used for stereo vision. Sometimes IR cameras are used with a lesser resolution. Often an additional 3D distance camera is used in addition to everything else. I think Raspberry Pi Zero 2W would struggle with real-time camera processing. I think Raspberry Pi 4/5 would struggle too, but less. As a side note, vacuums with a less advanced obstacle avoidance use a line laser sensor in the front. A line laser sensor does not need any computation-intensive processing. So, how vacuum cleaner robot makers deal with these two problems? To the best of my knowledge, a decade ago robotics software manufacturers took the open-source Robot Operating System (version 1 back then) including the open-source Google Cartographer mapping suite, stripped those down to fit 512MB RAM and run on quad-core ARM CPUs and made the source proprietary. Manufacturers have done such a good job optimizing ROS that, for example, this LiDAR-enabled robot vacuum runs on Allwinner F1C200s with 4x ARM Cortex-A7 1.2GHz cores, a mere 64MB in-package RAM and still performs LiDAR mapping and navigation. As far as the obstacle avoidance and real-time object recognition, consumer robot vacuum manufacturers use ARM-based CPUs that have on-chip ML/AI inference accelerators. For example, Ecovacs X5 Omni uses a Rockchip RK3562 with 4x A53 CPU cores clocked up to 2GHz, 512MB RAM and 8GB eMMC – with a 1 TOPS AI/ML on-chip accelerator. I may be wrong, but to make the project progress quickly we should use a Raspberry Pi 4/5 for its first version – to run the open-source ROS2. After that, we can optimize ROS2 to run on (much) cheaper single-board computer boards. How does that sound? Have you thought about using the WaveShare https://www.waveshare.com RP2040-Zero – Waveshare Wiki Pico zero as it does have a SD card slot?Hi StormLeopard, I love RP2040 and have programmed it for other projects (including PIO). Vacuum cleaners do need an I/O micro-controller. That said, vacuum cleaners need lots and lots of GPIO for motors and sensors. RP2040-Zero only has a few. The I/O board for OOMWOO is going to be a custom PCB built (tentatively) around STM32G070RBT6 with 59 GPIOs, 64MHz, 128KB flash, 32KB SRAM, 2V-3.6V, 12bit ADC. Even than number of GPIOs may not be enough – I’ll have to double check. Have you considered chaining a number of IO expanders on a i2c bus? Could use sx1509 (16 out) or NXP PCA9698 (40 out), They’re quite cheap and you can have multiple on the same bus, then if you run out of IO just chain in another one. If you had space for three pca9698 that’s 120 IO, which should be enough for anyone, don’t have to populate all slots. If you want interrupts, then that’s just three interupt lines to deal with. Yes you lose a tiny bit of latency, but it’s not going to matter for this application. Could also stick with the STM, but have some sx1509 slots for banks of 16 extra if needed. Another option would be each module has one i2c bus and power, and you connect them centrally, but at that point you might as well go for CAN or something. PCA9698 GPIO expander datasheet with 40 GPIO looks good. I’d consider using it, but I’ve just looked up its pricing. PCA9698 costs ~$5.40 at 100+ pieces at JLCPCB compared to STM32G070RBT6 ~$1. SX1509 costs ~$3.15 About the GPIO count, I’ll get back to you with a concrete GPIO budget estimate. The only real feedback you’d need from the motors would be the quadrature encoders on the wheel motors; suction and brush motors are just on/off (or simple PWM). Drive them with something like a DRV8833. An RP2040 or dedicated quadrature counter IC decodes the encoder pulses and feeds position counts back to the Pi over I2C or UART. I’m not convinced you actually need the STM.