Roomba script can create Doom levels based on your house

Many people have a Roomba to vacuum their houses, guess what? Meet Doomba, a script that uses the popular Roomba vacuuming robots to create levels for Doom, the classic first-person shooter.

Enterprising game developer Rich Whitehouse recently decided to repurpose this mapping data for something else entirely: Creating custom levels of the classic first-person shooter Doom. He calls the results “Doomba.” Because why the heck not?

So what’s your Roomba doing creating maps of the inside of your house? Many of iRobot’s modern robotic vacuums rely on VSLAM, also known as visual simultaneous localization and mapping. Rather than wandering around like slow-moving ping-pong balls, modern Roomba devices methodically sweep back and forth in long passes like they’re mowing your lawn. That makes them much more efficient than previous models.

Of course, the results won’t look exactly like your home, since you’ll still be walking around seeing the iconic hellscape textures of the original game. But the idea of gradually orienting yourself to a level that resembles a floor plan of your real-life living quarters is certainly cool. So how does Whitehouse thinks the new levels match up to the original stages, or randomly generated ones?

To do the work, some Roombas use a creepy little electronic eyeball to create detailed maps of your home. Doomba takes that map and makes it into a level of Hell.

More info and the scrips can be found here. You do need the high-end Roomba 980 though.