Xiaomi’s current robotic vacuum cleaners are equipped with advanced navigation systems that allow the device to build a map of the room itself. However, to make a smart gadget work as efficiently as possible, it is not enough to just start it for the first time. Many owners face the need for more fine-tuning so that the robot understands where the kitchen is and where the bedroom is. Competent separation of space allows you to set cleaning modes for specific zones, which significantly saves battery power and filter life.
The zoning process of the map in the Mi Home or Xiaomi Home app gives access to virtual walls, no-go zones and selective room cleaning functions. This is especially true for apartments with complex layouts or pets, which may be restricted in access to certain rooms. In this article, we will discuss in detail how to properly divide the map into logical rooms, rename them and adjust the individual settings for each room.
It is important to understand that the initial construction of the map requires the user to be patient and meet a number of conditions: the robot must travel the entire available perimeter to correctly recognize walls and obstacles. Only after creating a complete and accurate map can you start editing it, errors at this stage can lead to the device being lost or missing areas that require cleaning.
Preparation of the robot and conditions for map construction
Before you start dividing your apartment into virtual rooms, you need to provide the perfect conditions for the initial scanning of the space. The laser rangefinder (LDS) installed on the top of the device should have an unobstructed view. Remove from the floor wires, clothes, toys and other small objects that can get entangled in brushes or be perceived by algorithms as an insurmountable obstacle.
Indoor lighting also plays a role, although most modern Xiaomi models like the Roborock S50 or Mijia 1C navigate in the dark.However, for initial sensor calibration, it's better to have light in the room. Make sure cabinet and drawer doors are closed and curtains don't hang to the floor, creating the illusion of a solid wall for sensors.
⚠️ Warning: Do not carry a robot vacuum cleaner on your hands while building a map. If the device is stuck, release it and put it on the base, starting the process again, otherwise the map will be distorted and require a complete reset.
Run a complete cleanup in Quiet or Standard mode so that the device can safely travel around the room, during which time you should not open or close the doors between the rooms, as this will disrupt navigation. The robot must return to the base on its own, storing the layout data in its memory.
First scan and save the card
After the first cleaning cycle is completed, the Mi Home app will notify you that the map has been saved, and you can now go into edit mode by clicking on the map icon or selecting "Map Settings" from the device menu, and this is where the process of splitting the single space into separate functional areas takes place.
The interface offers a tool called Split, which allows you to draw lines manually, you have to draw a line where you think the boundary between the rooms should be, and the algorithm automatically recognizes doorways and tries to break the connection between the rooms, depending on how clearly the robot "saw" the walls during the scan.
- 📱 Open the Mi Home app and select your robot vacuum cleaner.
- 🗺️ Click on the card icon or go to the settings to find the item "Maps Editing".
- ✂️ Select the "Separate" tool and draw a line at the location of the doorway.
- 💾 Click Save to record changes in device memory.
If the automatic separation went wrong and the app combined the hallway with the living room into one room, use the Merge tool to correct the errors, and then try to separate the zones again. Sometimes it takes several attempts to achieve the perfect result, especially in open-plan apartments.
Editing tools: Separation and Unification
The main tool for mapping is the separation function, and when you draw a line, the system analyzes the geometry of the room, and the separation line must be drawn strictly through the center of the doorway, or where one floor covering ends and another begins, and if you draw a line through the center of the room, the robot can perceive this as two separate zones, but with shared access, which is not always convenient for selective cleaning.
The unification function is necessary in cases where the laser sensor does not recognize the open doorway and divides the room into two parts. For example, the kitchen-living room is often perceived as one large space, but if there is an island or a bar counter, the robot can mistakenly create two rooms. The "Combine" tool allows you to erase the boundary between adjacent dedicated areas.
When you're working with editing tools, it's important to follow the sequence of actions: first perform all the separation operations, then combine the extra fragments, and only at the very end rename the rooms. Changing the structure of the map after assigning names can lead to resetting of room settings.
☑️ Check before saving the card
Setting up room names and types of rooms
Once the space is divided into logical blocks, each of them needs to be given a name. It's not just a matter of aesthetics, but an important part of functionality. Xiaomi Home allows you to choose the type of room from a list: Kitchen, Bedroom, Living Room, Bathroom, Corridor, etc. The type choice affects the cleaning algorithms if you decide to customize smart home scenarios in the future.
You can simply tap the area of the room in edit mode, and you can choose a standard name or type your own, like "Children's" or "Cabinet," which is especially useful for voice control using Google Assistant or Yandex Alice, because you can command "Clean up in the nursery."
| Type of room | Recommended treatment | Features of settings |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen. | Maximum power | Wet cleaning is often required. |
| Bedroom. | Quiet regime | Cleaning by daytime |
| Living room | Standard. | Regular dry cleaning |
| Bathroom | Wet cleaning | A carpet or special regime is required. |
| Kitchen. | turbo | High cross-country, crumbs. |
| Bedroom. | Quiet | Silence is important, lots of textiles. |
| Living room | Standard | Big square, dust. |
| corridor | Standard | Dirt from the street, sand |
Remember that renaming rooms also helps with cleaning statistics, and you'll see in the reports how much time and how much space has been cleared in each area, which allows you to evaluate the performance of the device.
Creation of virtual walls and forbidden zones
One of the most useful features of separating rooms is creating virtual constraints: Virtual Walls and No-Go Zones allow the ban robot to enter certain places, critical to protecting wires, pet bowls, or carpet areas that are not designed for wet cleaning.
A virtual wall is a line that the robot cannot cross, a no-go zone is a square or rectangle that the device is not allowed to enter, and you can set it up in the same map editing menu by selecting the appropriate tool, and you can create up to 10 virtual walls and 10 no-go zones per map.
⚠️ Attention: Virtual walls are tied to map coordinates, and if you move the robot base to another location, or if you change the furniture a lot, the coordinates go wrong, and the restrictions may stop working, or if you block the extra areas.
Using no-go zones is especially important for wet-cleaning models, so you can prevent a robot from coming in with a wet cloth on the living room carpet, leaving it open to dry-cleaning in a different mode, making navigation really smart and safe for your interior.
What happens if virtual walls disappear?
Keeping several maps and working with floors
Multi-storey homeowners often wonder if it is possible to use a single robot on different floors.Most modern Xiaomi models support saving up to 4-5 cards in memory.This means that you can remove the first floor, save the map, move the base to the second floor, build a new map and also save it.
To switch between maps, you don't have to scan the room again every time, just select "Add a map" from the map menu or select a previously saved map from the list, and the robot recognizes the room by the surrounding objects and automatically downloads the corresponding division into rooms and virtual wall settings.
- 🏠 Remove the first floor and save the map as "Floor 1".
- 🚚 Move the charging station to the second floor.
- 🔄 Start building a new map and save it as "Floor 2".
- 🔄 If necessary, select the desired card in the application before launch.
The robot can't move between floors on its own, and make sure that there are no critical changes in lighting or large furniture on the new floor that can be detected by sensors when starting.
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Tip: Before moving the robot to another floor, be sure to clean the dust container and wash the cloth (if there is a washing function) so as not to carry dirt between the levels of the house.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Can I share the map if the robot has already been removed several times?
What happens if I divide the room incorrectly?
Are room settings reset when updating the firmware?
How to remove a virtual wall if you no longer need it?
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Properly dividing an apartment into rooms in the Xiaomi app is the key to personalized cleaning, saving time and battery life by cleaning only where it is really needed.