It’s no surprise that the home shared by an engineer and a tech journalist is filled with gadgets. We already own a robot, a Roomba, which vacuums our floors every day. So it wasn’t a shock to me when my boyfriend showed up with another robotic helper for our home. It’s called the Litter Robot II, an automatic self-cleaning litter box. The machine is a big black orb with a hole in the middle. It looks like the Death Star.

In the beginning, I scoffed at the price. At nearly US $400 with tax and shipping, it’s by far the most expensive waste receptacle in our house. I was also a bit worried about its integrity; friends had told us that their cats only took one day to destroy a different robotic litter box by ripping open the side panel and relieving themselves on the electronics inside.  [Read More]