Malagster

The Neato creates its own map from experience, and scans / explores your house while vacuuming.  I believe the Neato has a scanner so it can "see" part of your room (but it still bumps into walls).  Every time my Neato completes cleaning it texts me a map of my house.  This is better than my old-model Roomba, which tries to go around the house like a blind mouse in a maze.  The Neato tries to remember where its charging station is and usually makes it back to recharge.  I schedule my Neato to run twice a week (when I'm out of the house--its noisy so I prefer not to be here) and empty it about every 2-3 runs.  It takes a few hours for it to work through my house.

A few things to keep in mind with the Neato:

1) I scan my house for "stuff on the floor" which the Neato will eat.  In particular I usually just close the door to my teenage Son's room.  Phone charging cables hanging down onto the floor are also a no-no.

2) The Neato ships with a "flat magnet boundary strip" which it will not cross.  The most likely place to use that would be at the top of the stairs.  I live in a 1-story so don't have to use the boundary.

I'm happy with my Neato.  I bought it with a Best Buy extended warranty.  It's mechanical and I'm betting its going to break within a few years.