Owners of modern cleaning devices often face the need to quickly clean a particular room without starting a full cleaning cycle for the entire apartment. For example, after cooking, you need to remove the crumbs only in the kitchen, or children scattered the designer in the nursery while the living room is clean carpet. The standard mode of operation, in which a robot vacuum cleaner travels all available space, in such situations is inefficient and wastes battery power.
Fortunately, the Xiaomi Mi Home ecosystem and built-in navigation algorithms allow you to manage cleaning areas flexibly. However, the functionality can vary depending on the device model: the presence of lidar (LDS) or the use of gyroscopic navigation directly affects the options available to you. In this article, we will discuss all the ways to get equipment to clean exactly where it is needed, and discuss the nuances of working with virtual walls and maps.
Understanding how navigation works will help you avoid situations where the device gets stuck or ignores commands. We will look at setting up through the official app, using voice assistants, and creating automation scenarios for maximum comfort.
Navigation technologies and their impact on room selection
Before you start setting up, it’s important to determine what type of navigation your device is using. LDS-Lidar models (a rotating sensor on the top panel) build an accurate map of the room, allowing you to select specific rooms with one touch in the application. Devices like the Xiaomi Vacuum Mop 2 Pro or Roborock S5 Max “see” the layout and can remember the names of the zones.
Devices with gyroscopic navigation or chaotic motion don't have a detailed map in memory. They move in straight lines, pushing against the walls, but they don't keep the floor plan for the user, and in this case, it's more programmatic to run cleaning in one room, because the robot won't physically know where the hallway ends and the bedroom begins unless you use physical stops.
For owners of models without lidar, there are special modes, such as "Edge Cleaning" or "Local Cleaning" (Spot), which are activated by a button on the case or through the application, which forces the device to clean a plot of about 1.5 square meters around it, which is ideal for eliminating local contamination.
⚠️ Note: If your model does not support map construction (no laser rangefinder at the top), the room selection function in the application will not be available.
You can tell the type of navigation by the look: if there's a characteristic thickening on the lid that rotates while you're working, you have an advanced model with a map. If the top panel is flat and smooth, you're probably using a gyroscope or an accelerometer.
Set up the map and divide into zones in Mi Home
For lidar models, the key is to build a map first, and the robot must drive around the apartment at least once in Auto mode to store the plan in the cloud server memory or locally, and then an interactive map appears in the Mi Home app that you can interact with.
To properly recognize rooms, the map often needs to be edited, you can combine or separate rooms, and you can name them (Kitchen, Living Room, Bedroom) through the map editing menu, where wall drawing and space sharing tools are available.
Once the map is done and the rooms are named, the controls become intuitive, so you just open the map, click on the room, and select the "Cleanup" command, and the device will build the route itself, clear the selected area, and return to base.
It is important to keep an eye on firmware, as room sharing algorithms are often improved by developers. You can check the version of the software in the device settings by going through the Settings path → About device → Check updates.
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For better map accuracy, remove wires, clothes and other small items that the robot may mistake for obstacles or tighten into itself before first running.
Use of virtual walls and prohibited areas
If the automatic room division doesn't work properly, or your model doesn't support zone naming, virtual walls come to the rescue, which are software barriers that the robot perceives as physical obstacles, even though there are no physical obstacles on the floor.
In the Mi Home app, you can draw a red line through the doorway, separating one room from the rest of the apartment, and the robot, when it reaches that line, turns around and goes the other way, and this allows you to isolate the cleaning room if you run the device directly inside.
There's also a No-go zone, which is a square area where you can't go, and by combining virtual walls and no-go zones, you can leave a clean living room carpet while the vacuum cleaner is in the kitchen.
| Type of restriction | How it works | For which models? |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Wall (Line) | The invisible barrier that a robot cannot cross | Models with LDS and camera |
| No-go zone (Square) | Areas where you are not allowed to enter (e.g. around a pets bowl) | Almost all smart models |
| Magnetic tape | Physical strip on the floor creating a magnetic field | Older models without lidar (Mi Robot 1S, etc.) |
The use of virtual boundaries is especially true in studio apartments, where there are no clear walls between the kitchen and the living room, and you can artificially create a "room" on a map, limiting it from all sides to virtual lines.
⚠️ Warning: Virtual walls only work if the robot is inside the fenced area, or if you start cleaning the entire apartment, if you put the robot outside the virtual room, it just won't go there because it will consider the path closed.
Spot and local cleaning modes
When the map is not built yet or the device model does not support zoning, local cleaning modes become the optimal solution, allowing the suction power to be focused on a single point or a small area.
Spot mode forces the robot to move along a spiral trajectory with a radius of about 1,5 It's ideal for cleaning up crumpled sugar, cat filler or dirt at the front door. 2-3 pass) device returns to base.
Some advanced models support Room Cleaning, even without a detailed name. You can launch the robot in the right room, and thanks to elevation sensors, it will ply inside until it decides that the room is cleaned, although there are fewer guarantees of precise separation.
☑️ Checklist before local cleaning
To activate Spot mode on most models, just press the appropriate button on the case or select it in the application interface. On the map, this action is often indicated by the target or spiral icon.
Voice control and automation scenarios
Modern smart home ecosystems allow you to run a room cleaning by voice or on a schedule. If you have a column with Yandex.Alice, Google Assistant or Siri, you can link your Mi Home account and give commands.
The phrase "Alice, turn on kitchen cleaning" only works if the Mi Home app already calls the room "Kitchen" and the device supports this integration feature, which is the fastest way to start the process without taking out the phone.
You can also create complex scenarios in the Mi Home app, such as setting up an automatic cleanup in the hallway every day at 14:00, when you normally work, and the scenario could include the condition, "If no one is home (phone geolocation)."
Example of voice command:
"Siri, tell Mi Robot to vacuum the living room."To customize scenarios, go to Scenarios → Create → If (time/geolocation) → That (clean up in the zone) This requires careful initial setup, but then it works completely autonomously.
What to do if voice commands don’t work?
Solving problems with navigation and map
Sometimes the robot refuses to clean just one room or gets lost on the map, often because of poor lighting or mirrored surfaces that are knocked down by sensors, Lidar needs light, and optical sensors need contrast on the floor.
If the map is gone or the robot can't see the virtual walls, try resetting the map and rebuilding it. To do this, select the "Reset" or "Restore" option in the map settings, and then do a complete cleanup of the entire apartment without restrictions.
It's also worth checking the purity of the sensors. Contaminated windows of elevation sensors or bumpers can lead to false positives, which will make the robot think that it is stuck or in another part of the house.
⚠️ Warning: Do not move the base (dock station) to a new location after building the map without updating it in the application. The robot will search for the base using the old coordinates and may not complete the cleaning, discharged in search of the old one.
Regular maintenance and proper calibration will ensure that the zoning function is stable, and if problems persist, you may need to reinstall the application or reconnect the device to a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network.
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Stable zoning operation depends on the purity of the sensors, the relevance of the map and sufficient indoor lighting.