All you wanna-be robot hackers take note. Tod Kurt’s new book on hacking the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner is available for pre-order on amazon.

It’s a great platform with a decent processor and interface, very well-engineered sensors and motor systems, and is relatively cheap for all the hackable robotic excellence it contains. $180 for the robot, and $17 for the book seem like a good deal. The book highlight all sorts of projects including adding a camera and making the robot draw on paper and so on. Every high school should have four or five of these suckers.