Xiaomi's modern robot vacuum cleaners are no longer just blind cleaners running around in a random way. With laser-based LDS mapping and intelligent route planning, these devices can remember your home's layout. However, to make it work as efficiently as possible and clean only where it's needed, the user needs to configure zoning. It's the creation of virtual rooms that allows you to set specific cleaning scenarios for each zone.
The process of splitting a single map of a room into separate functional areas opens up access to advanced control functions. You can prevent cleaning in the nursery during a child's sleep or, conversely, start double cleaning in the hallway where pollution occurs most quickly. The Mi Home app provides a powerful toolkit for implementing these tasks, but the interface is not always intuitive the first time. In this article, we will discuss how to properly create, rename and customize rooms for your Xiaomi Vacuum Mop.
Preparation for zoning of the room map
Before you can manually edit a map and divide it into rooms, you need to make sure that the robot vacuum cleaner has successfully built a basic model of your home, which requires at least one full automatic cleaning of the entire available area. If you just purchased the Xiaomi Vacuum Mop, give it time to work out the full cycle, return to base and save the resulting map in internal memory.
It's important that the first time you build a map, the house is light enough and all the doors to the rooms are open. The robot needs to move freely between the rooms to understand the relationship. If you try to create rooms before the initial scan is complete, the system may not properly process the boundaries, and you have to remove the map and start the process again. Also make sure that the vacuum cleaner firmware version and the Mi Home app are updated to the latest available versions.
⚠️ Warning: Do not attempt to edit a map or create rooms while the robot is running. All zoning settings are available only when the device is at the charging station and is in standby mode.
Once you've completed the first cleanup, open the app on your smartphone. Go to the main screen of the device, where the current map is displayed. If the map is saved, you'll see the contours of the walls and obstacles. Only now you can move to the separation function, which is a critical step, because the accuracy of the borders depends on the quality of the cleaning robot's further navigation.
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Before you start editing the map, make sure that there are no small objects (socks, wires, toys) on the floor that the robot could mistake for stationary obstacles and put into the map as walls.
Step-by-step instructions for dividing the map into rooms
The process of map sharing in the Xiaomi ecosystem is implemented through the map management menu. To start, click on the card icon or the Map button in the upper right corner of the interface. In the menu that opens, select Edit Map. The system will ask you to confirm the action, since changing the map structure can affect the cleaning history.
At the bottom of the screen or in the tool menu, look for the Split option, and when you activate this mode, you'll see a cut line on the map, and your task is to draw that line exactly along the boundary between the rooms, such as the doorway line or along the wall that separates the kitchen from the living room, and the separation line should connect the two points on the map, completely crossing the passage between the zones.
After you draw the line, the app will suggest you save the changes. Press the corresponding button, and the system will automatically recalculate the navigation grid. Now, in the place of the single space, two or more separate zones will appear, which can be independently selected for cleaning. If the line has fallen crooked the first time, do not worry - you can cancel the separation function and repeat the action until the result is satisfactory.
For complex layouts where one large space needs to be divided into several parts (e.g. kitchen-living room-dining room), the procedure will have to be repeated several times. First divide the room into two parts, save, then re-enter editing mode and divide one of the resulting parts further.
Setting up names and types of premises
Once the map has been divided into logical segments, it is highly desirable to give them clear names. By default, the system can call them "Room 1", "Room 2", which is inconvenient when you use voice control or configure scripts. To rename, go to the map settings, select the desired zone and click "Rename".
Choosing the right type of room is not just important for visual convenience. Xiaomi’s smart algorithms can use this information to optimize cleaning mode. For example, for the kitchen and bathroom (if the model supports wet cleaning), the robot can automatically increase the suction power or turn on the wash mode if the scenario provides.
| Type of room | Recommended strategy | Features of settings |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen. | Maximum power | Frequent cleaning, focus on stains |
| Bedroom. | Quiet regime / Night | Prohibition of cleaning at certain times |
| Living room | Standard/Z-shaped | Regular cleaning on schedule |
| corridor | Double-wire | High passability, you need thoroughness |
Remember, renaming rooms makes it easier to interact with voice assistants. If you use Yandex.Alice, Google Assistant or Siri (via HomeKit), you can command, "Alice, ask the vacuum cleaner in the kitchen." Without the right room names, these commands won't work, and you'll have to run a full cleaning every time.
Use of virtual walls and forbidden areas
In addition to physically separating the map into rooms, the Xiaomi Vacuum Mop features invisible barriers, called virtual walls and no-go zones. Unlike dividing rooms into parts for selective cleaning, no-go zones completely block the robot from entering a particular area, even if it is inside the selected room.
In the map editing menu, select Virtual Wall or No-go Zone, and you can draw a line that the robot can't cross, or you can select a rectangular area, which is perfect for protecting animal water bowls, areas with scattered toys, or places where fragile vases are located. Virtual restrictions are stored in the device's memory and are permanent until you remove them.
There's also Zone Clean, which is a temporary analog of dividing rooms, so you can use your finger to pick out a rectangle on a map and start cleaning only in that area, and it's convenient for quickly eliminating local contaminants, like when food crumbles or coffee spills, but it's better to use room separation for permanent work, because it's more stable.
⚠️ Warning: Virtual walls and no-go zones only work if you have a saved card, and if you drop the card or move the robot to another home, all the restrictions that you create will disappear and you will have to draw them again.
When setting up restricted areas, it is important to keep a small margin from the real boundaries of dangerous objects. A laser rangefinder and buffer zones of safety of a robot can cause it to stop a couple of centimeters from the drawn line.
Scripts of cleaning and automation by room
Creating rooms opens the way to real automation of cleaning. In the Mi Home app, you can create schedules not just for the whole house, but for specific rooms. For example, you can adjust the schedule so that on weekdays from 10:00 to 12:00 the robot cleans only the living room and the hallway while everyone is at work, and on weekends at 9:00 starts a full cleaning of all rooms.
You can set different cleaning options for different rooms. In your schedule, select the desired room and set the desired suction power and water pump mode (if any), for carpet in the bedroom, high power and switching off the sink, and for tiles in the kitchen, average power and active water supply, this flexibility allows you to extend the life of the battery and consumables.