No Cloud Floor Cleaning

Running a robot vacuum with zero cloud dependencies — local control, local maps, total privacy.

No Cloud Floor Cleaning

I love automation. I don't love sending a map of my house to a server in China. Here's how I set up a fully local, cloud-free robot vacuum that cleans on schedule without phoning home.

Why Go Local?

Most robot vacuums require a cloud connection to function. Your vacuum maps your house, uploads that data to the manufacturer's servers, and you control it through their app. There are several problems with this:

  1. Privacy: A detailed floor plan of your home is sitting on someone else's servers
  2. Reliability: If their servers go down, your vacuum stops working
  3. Longevity: When the company shuts down or drops support, your vacuum becomes a brick
  4. Latency: Commands go from your phone → cloud → vacuum, adding unnecessary delay

The Hardware

I went with a Roborock S7 — not because it's the most local-friendly out of the box, but because it has excellent cleaning performance AND a thriving community of people who've figured out how to liberate it from the cloud.

The Setup

Step 1: Root the Vacuum

Using Valetudo, an open-source project that replaces the cloud functionality with a local web interface. The rooting process involves:

  • Extracting the firmware
  • Patching it with Valetudo
  • Flashing it back to the device

The whole process took about 30 minutes following the documentation.

Step 2: Block Cloud Access

After installing Valetudo, I configured my firewall (Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro) to block all outbound traffic from the vacuum. This ensures that even if there's a firmware update that tries to re-enable cloud connectivity, it can't phone home.

Step 3: Home Assistant Integration

Valetudo exposes a local MQTT interface, which integrates directly with Home Assistant. Now I can:

  • Schedule cleanings based on presence detection (nobody home → vacuum runs)
  • Target specific rooms via the floor plan stored locally
  • Get notifications when the dustbin is full
  • Track cleaning history and statistics

The Result

A robot vacuum that:

  • Cleans my floors on a smart schedule
  • Never sends data outside my network
  • Works even if my internet goes down
  • Will keep working as long as the hardware lasts
  • Responds instantly to commands via Home Assistant

Takeaway

The "smart" in smart home shouldn't mean "dependent on someone else's cloud." With a little effort, you can have devices that are smarter, more reliable, and more private than their cloud-connected counterparts.