Floor vent guard for stupid robot vacuums

thingiverse

We've got a couple of robot vacuums on hand, and the heavy hitter is definitely the Neato Botvac connected - but as good as it is, it kind of sucks at edge cleaning. That's where the cheapo Chinese knockoff comes in, the Ecovacs Robotics Deebots, which are essentially identical to other 'brands' out there. Unfortunately, they're also pretty dumb, but they do edge cleaning really well thanks to their big swirling brushes that funnel debris towards the main brush. The problem is the drop sensors on these little guys are ridiculously sensitive, and our Deebot loves to pick a fight with one of the AC floor vents in one bathroom. The old-style run-of-the-mill metal vent hasn't changed since I was a kid in the 70s - without fail, the poor little Deebot gets stuck on the vent due to its rudimentary drop sensor (a simple IR LED/beam and receiver) and it gets 'stuck' between the metal slats. It hardly tries to free itself before just going catatonic and calling for help. So I whipped this up in Tinkercad to guard the front of this particular air vent - it's not fancy, but it works well enough. Things it could use are a way to hook over the vent itself; as it stands now, it's not very secure, especially on tile, so I used some spray adhesive to attach it to the vent and that keeps it still. If used on carpet, it could use some teeth on the bottom to help it stay in place - it could also use some bracing, but it works. It's in two parts due to its size, with a little bridge piece that allows for some adjustment for longer vents. This thing was made with Tinkercad; you can edit it online at https://www.tinkercad.com/things/kAwUR6SX5Ds