Roomba is a wonderful introductory robot: helpful, non-threatening, small. It was the only commercial robot I had around, so it became my first painting robot. I was impressed with its resilience, though once in a while it would stop and beep its distress signal without due cause.

The paintings got many unwarranted compliments. Paint from the bottle, raw canvas, dirt from the floor, globs and spatters from moments where the rollers became overwhelmed, stretched and stapled directly to the wall. It was outsider art, I guess.

The last painting stretched across an entire roll of canvas. It was to be divided into four panels, one for each member of my family. For showmanship, I raised a 4x4 of plywood on two saw horses and lay the canvas across it. One of Roomba's branded features is self-preservation. Once I awoke from a dream that its stair sensor failed and it had rolled off the plywood to the concrete below. Two days later, it happened.