Xiaomi's modern robot vacuum cleaners can do wonders if properly trained. Many owners find themselves rushing around the apartment immediately after buying, ignoring the logical boundaries between the bedroom and the kitchen. This is because the virtual map doesn't yet contain any markings that the user can understand. Without clear zoning, you can't set up a room cleaning schedule or bar a child from entering the nursery while playing.
The process of creating and configuring a map takes time and you have to be involved in it. The robot has to drive around the house to have its lidar or camera build an accurate plan of the room. Only after the app has a full drawing of your apartment, you can start dividing the space into functional zones. The Mi Home app provides powerful tools for this, but its functions are often hidden in the submenu.
In this article, we will take a look at how to turn a set of pixels on a smartphone screen into a smart navigation system, how to fix scan errors, rename rooms and install virtual walls where you really need them, and how to set up rooms correctly is the foundation for your cleaning robot to work efficiently.
Primary map construction and room requirements
Before you think about names like Living Room or Corridor, you need to get a good base map. Xiaomi robots with a laser rangefinder (LDS) or a camera (VSLAM) build a map during the first full cleaning cycle. It's important that at that point the house is as clean as possible, and all the doors to the rooms you plan to clean are open. The laser sensor should be free to scan walls and furniture from all sides.
Lighting is secondary to lidar models, but critical to navigation camera devices. If you have a camera model, make sure that the rooms have enough light, otherwise the map may be blurred or misaligned, and it is also recommended to remove wires, socks and other small objects from the floor that can confuse the wheels or be perceived as an obstacle that distorts the geometry of the room.
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Start the first full cleaning in the afternoon when the houses are quiet and no one will rearrange the furniture or walk around the rooms to avoid knocking the robot’s trajectory down.
Once the cycle is complete, the app will have a map, if it looks curved or "broken," it's better to repeat the procedure. Sometimes the robot can lose orientation if you accidentally move it on your hands to another place while you're working, in which case the navigation system gets knocked down and the map is built incorrectly. Often, you need to clear the current map in the settings and start building again.
Map editing tools in the Mi Home app
When the basic plan of the apartment is loaded, you have access to edit mode, and to enter this mode, you have to go to the main screen of the device in the application, click on the three dots in the upper right corner and select the Setting up the map or Editing the map, and this is where the tools that allow you to manipulate the space are.
The editor interface may vary depending on the firmware version and the specific vacuum cleaner model (Mi Robot, Roborock, Dreame). However, the basic feature set usually remains the same. You have tools available to separate, merge, rotate and rename zones. Virtual walls and mats are also customized in the same menu, allowing you to create no-go zones.
- 🛠️ Divide: a tool that allows you to draw a line and divide a single space into two independent rooms.
- 🔗 Combine: a function for merging two adjacent rooms if the robot mistakenly split one large living room into parts.
- 🔄 Turn: Allows you to deploy a map or individual rooms if the orientation of the room is set incorrectly.
- 🚫 No-go zone: creating rectangles or lines that the robot won't pass through.
⚠️ Note: All changes to the map only apply after saving. If you exit editing mode without clicking Save, all your actions will be canceled and you will have to start editing again.
It's important to understand that map editing is a process that requires precision, and carelessly drawing separation lines can cause a robot to consider part of a corridor as a separate room, in which case it may miscalculate the area to be cleaned or leave unharvested areas at the boundaries of the zones.
Step-by-step: how to divide and name rooms
The most common scenario for using an editor is to divide a large space into separate rooms, for example, the kitchen-living room is often perceived by the robot as one huge room. To fix this, choose the Divide tool (an icon with a dotted line or scissors) Draw a line with your finger along the boundary between the zones, for example, along the junction of tile and laminate or along the bar counter.
Once you've shared space, it takes a while for the robot to become aware of the new configuration. Some models require a short cleaning run to allow the system to record the changes. Once the rooms are separated, you can start identifying them. Click on the created zone to open the properties menu, and select Rename or Room Name.
☑️ Room separation algorithm
The system will offer a standard list of names: Kitchen, Living Room, Bedroom, Bathroom, etc. Choosing the right name is important not only for your convenience, but also for statistics. In the cleaning reports, you will see how many square meters were cleaned in each particular room, which helps to understand where more frequent cleaning is required.
If the standard list isn't enough or you want to name a room unique (like "Cabinet" or "Cardrobe"), some versions of the app allow you to type in text manually. Once you've assigned a name, remember to save the map. Room identification is complete, and now you can manage them independently.
Configure forbidden zones and virtual walls
Room division is only half of the success. The other half is restricting access to certain places. Virtual walls and No-Go Zones are indispensable if you have places that a robot shouldn't go, whether it's long-pile carpets where it can suck itself in, or areas with scattered toys.
There are two main types of constraints: One is an invisible wall that acts as a barrier: a robot can drive along it but doesn't cross a line; the other is a no-go zone (usually marked with a red square), where the robot won't go at all, bypassing it, and is set up in the same map editing menu.
| Type of restriction | Designation | Robot behavior | Where to apply |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual wall | Blue line | He doesn't cross the line, he goes along. | Border of the kitchen and corridor, entrance to the children's |
| The no-go zone | Red square. | Covers the area from all sides | A bowl of water, a bunch of wires, a carpet. |
| No cleaning area | Shaded area | Passes through, but does not include a brush/water | Carpets (for models with wet cleaning) |
What if a robot ignores a virtual wall?
When you create no-go zones, it's important to leave a little buffer. Don't draw a red square close to the chair leg or the edge of the carpet. Leave a few centimeters of space so that the robot can slow down and not get stuck trying to get around the obstacle. The navigation algorithm takes into account the dimensions of the device, but inertia and slipping on the floor can play a cruel joke.
Problem Solving: What to Do If the Card Is Strayed
Even the most advanced robots are sometimes lost, and you might notice that the map in the app has gone, the rooms have overlapped, or there's a second copy of the corridor, most often because the robot has been unable to find its base, or has been manually moved, and in these cases, the position calibration is disrupted.
The first thing you need to do is check the cleanness of the sensors. You need to clean the round lidar dome on top with soft cloth and the side sensors. The dust on the sensors is a common cause of mapping errors. If mechanical cleaning didn't work, try rebooting the robot by turning it off and on, and sometimes it helps to just restart the system.
- 🧹 Clean up the map: If the errors are critical, remove the old card completely through the settings menu and create a new one from scratch.
- 📍 Checking the base: Make sure the charging station is standing against and around the wall free at least 1.5 meters.
- 📶 Wi-Fi signal: A weak signal can interrupt card data transmission, although the robot itself continues to remove the card.
⚠️ Warning: Never lift or transfer a working robot. If you need to move it to another room, press the pause button first or return it to base, wait for the engines to stop, and then pick it up.
If the map is constantly knocked down in a certain place, there may be a sensor trap: black mats, floor mirrors or transparent glass doors. The laser does not see the transparent glass, and black absorbs the beam. In such cases, it helps to install physical barriers or magnetic tapes (if the model supports), or create a large no-go zone in the application.
Using room-cleaning scenarios
Once you've given rooms and named them, you have new possibilities of automation, so you can now set up your cleaning schedule not just "days of the week," but to tie it to specific rooms, like having the kitchen cleaned every day at 10:00, and the bedroom cleaned only on Tuesdays and Fridays.
To do this, go to the script or timer settings. Select Add a timer, specify a time, and most importantly, select Select Rooms. Here you will see a list of all your renamed areas. Mark the ones and save. Now the robot will know where it needs to go at the appointed time.
It's also useful for wet cleaning, and you can send a robot to wash the floors only in the kitchen and in the bathroom, pre-installing a water tank, but not allowing it to enter the living room with a carpet, selective cleaning saves battery life and extends the life of filters and brushes.
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Properly configured rooms and scripts allow you to fully automate the cleaning process, eliminating the need to manually set parameters each time.