Today’s Xiaomi-branded robot vacuum cleaners and the Mijia ecosystem are able to navigate the space themselves, but they require user assistance to maximize efficiency. Initially configuring a room map is the foundation on which all the logic of cleaning a smart device is built. Without properly defined boundaries and zones, even the most powerful machine will waste extra time, drive into unnecessary places or skip difficult areas.
In this guide, we'll learn how to properly prepare a room, start building a map, and most importantly, how to manually or automatically divide it into separate rooms, allowing you to give commands like "clean the kitchen" or "wash the living room floor" without fear of the robot going into a bedroom where the wires are scattered.
Preparation of the premises before the first launch
Before the robot vacuum cleaner starts building the map, it is necessary to conduct preliminary preparation of the room. Remove from the floor any foreign objects that can confuse the sensors or become an obstacle: wires, socks, toys and small things. The laser rangefinder located on the top of the housing should have a free view for proper scanning of the walls.
Provide good lighting in rooms, especially if the model uses optical sensors for navigation. Although most modern Xiaomi models rely on lidar (LDS), the extra light helps avoid errors in recognizing floor textures and dark areas. Close doors to rooms where the robot is not desirable, or schedule them to be locked later through virtual walls.
Make sure that the launch pad (dock station) is mounted against the wall and there is a free space of at least 0.5 meters on each side around it. The robot should be able to freely turn around when leaving for cleaning. If the base is in a niche or corner, this can distort the original map construction.
⚠️ Warning: Do not move the robot vacuum cleaner and base station during the first map construction. Any interference will knock the coordinates and the map of the room will be built incorrectly, which will require a repetition of the procedure.
Check the battery before you start. To build a full map of the apartment, the robot may need more energy than a regular cleaning, because it will explore every corner. If the charge is less than 80%, it is better to put the device on charge before the procedure.
The process of initial map construction
The map is built via the Mi Home or Xiaomi Home mobile app, and once you connect the robot to Wi-Fi and link it to your account, the map creation option will appear in the management interface. Press the appropriate button to allow the robot to start exploring.
During this process, the device will move around the perimeter of the room, scanning the walls and obstacles. The smartphone screen will display the drawing that is being created in real time. It is important not to interrupt this process and make sure that the robot does not get stuck. If this happens, carefully release it and return it to the track, but try to minimize such situations.
Once the first pass is complete, the robot will return to base, and the app will show a message about saving the map, and at this point, the map is a single circuit without splitting into functional zones, and this is where the space segmentation work begins.
If an apartment has a complex layout or multiple rooms, the robot can suggest that it merges the disparate areas or divides them. In some AI models, the primary separation is automatic, but often manual adjustments are required for accuracy.
Manual division of the map into rooms
To manually specify the rooms to the robot, you need to go to map editing mode. In the Mi Home app, select your vacuum cleaner, click on the three dots in the upper right corner and select "Maps settings" or "Maps editing."
Use the Split tool, you'll need to draw a line across the floor on your smartphone screen, delineating adjacent spaces, the line must pass through the doorway or in the middle of the corridor, and after the line is drawn, the app will prompt you to save the changes.
- 📱 Open the app and go to the map editing mode.
- ✂️ Select the separation tool and draw a line between the rooms.
- 💾 Click Save to apply changes to the current map.
- 🔄 If necessary, repeat the procedure for other areas.
After separation, you can rename the resulting areas. Click on the area of the room and select the appropriate name from the list: "Kitchen", "Living Room", "Bedroom", etc. It's not just a cosmetic change - the names are used for voice control through smart speakers and automation scenarios.
☑️ Checklist of correct segmentation
It's important to draw the separation lines clearly and accurately, so if a line hits a wall or goes too close to furniture, the algorithm may not recognize the separation, and in such cases, the line will have to be removed and drawn again.
Configure virtual walls and forbidden areas
Beyond room division, it's critical to set limits, because virtual walls and restricted areas allow the robot to be prevented from entering certain areas even if there are no physical obstacles, and this is true for high-pile carpets, places where there is a bowl of water for animals, or areas with a lot of wires.
There are two main types of restrictions available in the map editing menu: Virtual Wall (an invisible line that cannot be crossed) and No-Go Area (a square or rectangle where no-go is allowed), and you can place them anywhere on the map by simply dragging your finger.
| Type of restriction | Description of action | Best application |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual wall | Blocking line | Separation of the kitchen from the living room, blocking the exit to the balcony |
| Prohibited zone | Square area (min/max) | Pet bowls, bathroom mats, places with wires |
| The Invisible Wall | Restriction in washing mode | Prohibition of the washing module on carpets |
It takes only a few minutes to adjust these parameters, but it greatly improves the reliability of the system, and the robot will strictly observe these boundaries with any cleaning program, unless you manually turn them off before you start.
What if a robot ignores a virtual wall?
Remember that virtual walls can be limited to the memory of the device, and try to use them rationally by connecting zones where possible, instead of creating many small, isolated areas.
Keeping several maps and working with floors
Owners of multi-storey buildings or apartments with complex layout will be useful to save several maps. Top Xiaomi models (for example, the S10 series, S12 and the flagship Roborock) allow you to save up to 4 room maps.
To save the second floor map, take the robot and base to the next level, open the app and start building a new map, and when it's finished, the system will suggest saving it as Map 2. When you return to the first floor, the robot automatically recognizes the location and switches to the corresponding map.
This eliminates the need to reconfigure rooms and virtual walls every time, and the device knows which floor it's on based on the geometry of the room, but to work properly, the base has to be moved along with the robot.
⚠️ Warning: When switching between cards, make sure you are not in Edit mode.Attempting to change one map from another floor can lead to overlapping contours and data corruption.
Multi-maps are particularly useful if the floors are similarly designed, and the robot adapts quickly and does not require long re-scanning if the geometry of the rooms matches.
Solving room recognition problems
Sometimes users are faced with a situation where the robot “forgets” the rooms or combines them back after a reboot, most often due to the fact that the map was not saved permanently or there was a failure in sync with the cloud.
Check if the Save Map option is enabled in the robot settings. If this feature is disabled, the device will build a new map each time it cleans, ignoring previous room settings. Also make sure the firmware version is up to date, as manufacturers often release patches that improve navigation algorithms.
- 🔄 Reset the map and rebuild it again if the errors repeat.
- 📶 Check the stability of the Wi-Fi connection in the cleaning area.
- 🧹 Clean the sensors and lidar of dust before a new scan.
If a robot is constantly losing orientation in one particular room, there may be too many mirrors or dark surfaces that do not reflect the laser beam well, and then use virtual walls to simplify the geometry of the room for the navigation system.
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To improve the recognition of dark objects and black floors (which lidar may not see), you can paste on the legs of furniture or on the floor in the problem area a piece of light paper or a special reflective marker, which will help sensors correctly identify the obstacle.
Timely maintenance of sensors and regular software updates are key to the stable operation of the navigation system. Do not ignore the notification of the application to clean the sensors.
Use of spot cleaning areas
Once the rooms are specified, you can only start cleaning in the selected area, and in the app, this is done by double tapping the room or by highlighting a rectangular area, which saves battery power and time if you want to remove the crumb you just spilled in the kitchen.
Area Cleaning allows you to set a rectangle of arbitrary size, so you can choose One Pass, Two Passes or Maximum Power for the selected area, and it's the perfect tool to keep the area clean between the major cleanup cycles.
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Properly tuned rooms and zones make the robot’s chaotic motion a manageable and predictable process, saving up to 30% of battery life.
By combining room separation, virtual walls and zoning, you create a flexible cleaning system that fully fits your lifestyle and housing layout.