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equipped with four infrared Cliff Sensors that prevent robots from falling off stairs or ledges. The Cliff Sensors are located along the inside of the bumper

. If the Sensors become obstructed by dust or debris, the infrared signal is weakened

While Roomba is cleaning, it avoids steps (or any other kind of drop-off) using four infrared sensors on the front underside of the unit. These cliff sensors constantly send out infrared signals, and Roomba expects them to immediately bounce back. If it's approaching a cliff, the signals all of a sudden get lost. This is how Roomba knows to head the other way

Roomba can clean for about two hours on a single charge. If you have the self-charger, Roomba will return and connect to the charger all by itself when the battery power is low (the self-charger is sold as an add-on to the Roomba base model but comes included on most of the higher Discovery models). It accomplishes this using the infrared receiver on its front bumper. When the battery power gets low, the vacuum starts looking for the infrared signal emitted by the charger. Once it finds it, Roomba follows the signal and docks itself to the charger. Some robotic vacuums with this self-charging feature will head back out to resume cleaning once they're fully recharged

generation models have a self-charging homebase they automatically try to find (via its infrared beacons). Charging on the homebase takes about three hours. All second and most third-generation Roombas can be used with the homebase, even if they do not come packaged with it.

Four infrared "cliff sensors" on the bottom of the Roomba's bumper prevent it from falling off ledges such as the top steps of stairways. Most second- and third-generation models have internal acoustic-based dirt sensors that allow them to detect particularly dirty spots (zones having excess particulates) and focus on those areas accordingly.