A Story About A Vacuum Cleaner
Susie Pennington bounced up the stairs to the second floor of her house. She looked at Melvin, the stuffed octopus that followed her everywhere, and said: “What do you think, is Piper going to be excited?” Melvin didn’t respond; he just flopped around in Susie’s right arm. “I’ll bet she will be. Let’s go see her.”
Susie made her way over to the control panel and punched in the code that would allow her to walk up the steps to Piper’s room without setting off the booby traps. It was usually a bucket of water that would pour on any poor trespasser’s head.
Piper was sitting at her favorite desk, both hands feverishly typing Python code as her eyes moved back and forth across her computer screen. She didn’t react when Melvin asked permission to enter.
“Piper, Melvin is asking if he can come in.”
Piper looked and saw Melvin peering around the corner. Susie was shaking him back and forth in an animated attempt to get Piper’s attention.
“So sorry, Melvin. Of course, you can come in. I was in the middle of some complicated code. This project is fighting back; it is not surrendering as easily as I thought it might.”
Susie burst through the door and onto the lap of her sister. She held up Melvin and said, “Hi!”
“Hi yourself. What are you two up to today?”
“Piper, you are not going to believe it, but Daddy said we can get a puppy. We are leaving to go find one in a little bit.”
“Really, you finally wore him down. Are you really going to get a puppy?”
“Yep. Melvin is going too. Do you want to come?”
“Sorry, kiddo. I have a bunch of work I need to get done this morning.”
“You sure you can’t go? It is going to be fun.”
“Go ahead. I trust you and Melvin to pick out the perfect one.”
Susie jumped up, looked at Melvin, and screamed, “WE ARE GETTING A PUPPY!”
Piper almost smiled as she got back to work on her code. The thoughts of a puppy were gone in a few seconds as she directed her concentration back to the computer screen. Her fingers started flying across the keyboard as her eyes narrowed. The easiest thing to do would be to map out the rooms and program the dimensions. The best thing to do would be to set it down in any room, in any house, at any time, and let it do its thing. Hmmm…
Piper paused and took a drink from her water bottle. She tapped her fingers on the desk as she checked the connections on the Raspberry Pi Zero she was using as the brains for her automatic vacuum cleaner. She decided to take the Zero out and put in a regular Raspberry Pi. She grabbed a couple components from a desk drawer and attached them to the new brains. Now the Pi was equipped with night vision and a module to measure the distance from obstacles. Happy with the setup, she got back to coding.
*****
Lieutenant Daniel Pennington parked his car and started to open his door. Before he could get it open, he noticed Susie running as fast as she could to the animal shelter’s front door. She tripped and luckily landed on the grass. Melvin was not as lucky; he face planted on the concrete.
“Um, daddy, I tripped.”
“Yes, you did. Are you ok?”
“Yep. Melvin took the fall a little harder, but he is ok, too.”
“Susie, I know you are excited, but let’s try to get in the shelter in one piece, all right.”
“Yep. Let’s go, daddy-o.”
Susie dusted off Melvin and then took her dad’s hand as they walked through the animal shelter’s front door.
A person who appeared to be a high school kid, probably a volunteer, greeted Susie and her father.
“Hello, how can I help you?”
“We are getting a puppy!”
“You are? Wow, that is exciting.”
“Yep.”
“So, can you take us on a little tour so that my daughter can see what you have to offer?”
“Of course, follow me.”
They made their way down a corridor to a set of swinging doors. Through the doors and to the right and there they were; cage after cage of any and all types of dog. Tails wagged as barks filled the large room.
“Lots of dogs here.”
“Yes. We are a no-kill shelter. All the dogs get exercised every day. We have volunteers who come in and take them for walks and play with them. They have a pretty good life here, but, of course, we would like to find homes for all of these animals.”
Lieutenant Daniel Pennington nodded his head. “That is good to know. Susie, why don’t you and Melvin take a look around.”
“Yep.”
He watched as his daughter skipped down the aisle, her head quickly moving back and forth in an attempt to find the perfect puppy.
“What a cute kid.”
“Yeah, she knows. How is that you have puppies here? I would think this would be a stop of last resort for older animals.”
“That is true. The fact is we get some animals who are pregnant when they arrive here. They have their litters, and then we have puppies.”
“That makes sense.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the screaming of Susie. They both turned to see her bouncing up and down and pointing to a cage.
“Well, sir, I think we have a winner.”
Danny smiled.” I think that is a good bet.”
*****
Piper took a long drink of water. She was close to testing her homemade automatic vacuum. One more walkthrough wouldn’t hurt. She looked over the prototype; it certainly wasn’t a finished product. Parts were exposed and jutting out from all sides. There was no case; the last thing she was going to worry about was how this version looked. The final part of the project would be 3D printing a case. Susie would do most of that. Right now, she was only interested to learn if it would work.
She sat the vacuum down on the floor. It wasn’t a full vacuum, certainly not an upright; it looked more or less like all the other disc-shaped automatic vacuums you see advertised on TV. This one, though, was special. It was straight from the brain of Piper Pandora Pennington.
Piper placed a bunch of books on the floor of her bedroom. Her makeshift obstacle course was ready. She powered on the vacuum, and it came to life. As it approached the first obstacle, a heavy calculus book, it paused and turned, slightly grazing the area where the book met the floor. Perfect.
Piper watched as the vacuum navigated her bedroom floor. She let it run for about ten minutes before picking it up to see if any of the components were overheating. Everything was fine. Test number 1 was a success.
*****
Danny and the shelter volunteer walked down the corridor and reached Susie. Susie hit a pose and casually pointed in the direction of a tiny furball sleeping in a dogfood dish.
“Can I hold him?”
The volunteer smiled as she said, “Of course.”
She opened the cage, and the furball sprang to life. It ran straight to Susie, who sat on the ground to greet him.
“Now, how did I know that this is the puppy your daughter would pick?”
Danny smiled as he watched Susie introduce the puppy to Melvin.
“Is it a male?”
“Yes. He is the last of his litter. The others were recently adopted; they went fast. His mom is still here, and his father was a traveling man.”
“Of course, he was.”
Danny watched Susie and the puppy play on the floor. They certainly were a match.
“Ok, what are you going to name him?”
“I have a name all picked out, but I can’t tell you yet. I have to ask Piper about it first.”
“Fair enough.”
“Yep.”
“I am sure you have some paperwork for me to fill out.”
“Sure do. Right this way.”
As they walked back to the entrance, they were followed by a six-year-old girl, a stuffed octopus, and an animate fur ball that the shelter claimed was a puppy.
*****
Piper took the prototype to Susie’s room. She double-checked the wireless connection and let it go. It was flawless. It avoided all the stuffed animals and table legs. It was quiet, and all the parts remained cool to the touch. She was satisfied that the vacuum was good to go. She brought it back to her room and charged it up. The next test would be that night when she let it loose on the house’s main floor. She was curious as to how it would handle the carpet to hardwood floor transitions. She didn’t anticipate any problems.
*****
Susie burst through the door and started to run up the stairs. She stopped when she realized the puppy was too small to climb up them by himself. She walked back down to scoop him up. Off she went, a puppy in one arm, octopus in the other.
“Piper! Piper! Come look. We got a puppy. Come see. Susie ran into her bedroom and placed the puppy on her bed. Hurry up, Piper.”
Susie and the puppy were playing on the bed when Piper walked into the room. She tried her best to suppress a smile when she saw her sister and the puppy.
“Look, isn’t he cute?”
“Sure is. Looks like a perfect match.”
“Yep.”
“Do you have a name for him?”
“Yep.”
“Well…”
Susie motioned her sister closer and then closer. She whispered the potential name into Piper’s ear.
“Really? You want to name him that?”
“Yep. What do you think? I’ll name him that if you like it.”
Piper, doing her best imitation of her grandmother, said, “In all my years I have never heard of such a name for a dog.”
“Piper, you are only twelve,” Susie said as she tried to control her giggling.
“OK. How much time do I have to think about it?”
“Ummm…until tomorrow morning.”
“Sounds fine. I will give this some deep thought.”
“OK, good. You going to stay and play with us?”
Piper started to get up and walk to the door. She stopped, quickly turned, and attacked her sister with her patented tickle monster technique.
Susie squealed as she, Piper, Melvin, and the puppy rolled around on the bed.
*****
Piper spent the bulk of the day coding. She was confident that the vacuum was getting dialed in. She started designing the parts for the case; she knew Susie was far too excited to be of any help today. She had a new friend she needed to become acquainted with.
Piper thought more about the vision system. The night vision and distance modules were sticking up out of the top of the disc. It made the vacuum look like it had eyes. She thought that was pretty cool, so she didn’t bother to encase them with the rest of the parts. She knew it was only a matter of time before Susie gave the module eyebrows, eyelashes, and maybe a nose and mustache. And, of course, there were the obligatory unicorn stickers that were bound to fill up the rest of the case.
*****
“Ok, Susie. You know you have to take care of this dog, right? He is going to be totally relying on you.”
Karen, playing the part of the skeptical step-mother, rolled her eyes as Susie said, “Yep, daddy-o. Melvin and I are on the job.”
“He has to be fed regularly, and you have to make sure he always has lots of water.”
“Yep. Piper and…Piper, Melvin, and I are going to make an automatic dog feeder and water thing. We are going to print all the parts ourselves. Piper said it won’t take long to write the code.”
He looked at his daughter while Karen once again rolled her eyes. “Well, what about house training him? Have you figured out how that is going to work?”
“Yep. No problem, daddy-o.” Susie jumped into her father’s arms. “No problem at all. Thanks for the puppy, daddy-o.”
*****
Night came quick. The puppy was put in a cage in the laundry room for the night. He was squared away with toys, water, and a bowl of food. Susie’s dad and Karen went to bed while Susie tried her best to sleep. Piper, as always, was working up in her room. Rumor had it that she did sleep every once in a while, but empirical evidence on that subject was scant at best.
At about 1:00 in the morning, Piper grabbed her vacuum and headed downstairs to the living room. She placed the vacuum down by a coffee table and retreated to the kitchen to grab an apple. As she was about to take a bite, she heard whimpering coming from the laundry room. An unhappy puppy was making his situation known.
Piper checked her watch. The Raspberry Pi vacuum was set to come to life in three minutes. The hope was that it competently worked its way throughout the living room without getting caught up in any obstacles. She decided she didn’t need to see it work; she had a puppy in distress that needed her attention.
Piper played with the puppy, put him back in his cage and then went to check on the vacuum. She found it in a different spot in the middle of the room. Everything looked good. It appeared that the plastic disc had done its job. Piper checked her watch; the vacuum was to come to life in another three hours. She decided to go back to her room and start on the dog feeder project that Susie wanted to do.
*****
Morning came early, as it usually does with a six-year-old and a new puppy. Susie ran down the stairs to check on her new friend. She stopped a few steps from the bottom. “Oh no Melvin, this is not good.” Susie shook Melvin’s head up and down in agreement.
“We better get Piper.”
Susie punched the code into the control panel and ascended the steps to her sister’s room.
“Susie, what are you doing up so early?”
“Ummm…Piper?”
“Yeah?”
“So, the puppy…”
“The puppy, what?”
“Ummm…I think the puppy pooped.”
“Well, puppies will do that.”
“Yeah, but…I think you better follow me.”
Piper kissed her sister on the top of the head and said, “Lead the way.”
As they descended the steps, the automatic lighting Piper and Susie designed woke up. Piper’s head sunk as she fully realized what had happened.
“How did the puppy get out of his cage, Piper?”
Piper tried to lift her head out of her hands, but she couldn’t. She knew exactly what had happened. She hadn’t fastened the cage door when she put the puppy back in.
“Oh, Susie. This is a disaster.”
“Yep. Melvin and I thought the same.”
Piper had thought about putting flour or something similar on the floor to check the coverage her vacuum was getting. That was supposed to happen down the road. She would also do more experiments with the vision and distance modules to get them working exactly like she wanted. She didn’t expect to get the data in this way.
Susie looked at her sister. Put her arm around her and said, “Well, we know your vacuum works; that is a good thing.”
Piper lifted her head out of her hands and focused on the streaks of dog poop that covered the entire room. The vision module was pointing too high; it missed the dog mess and pushed the pile all over the room.
Piper shook her head.” How could such a little dog poop so much?”
“I dunno, but he did.”
“You better go find him. Be careful where you step.”
Susie went straight to the laundry room and found the puppy sleeping in the middle of his cage.
She brought him back to the steps, and all of them sat back down. Piper once again had her head in her hands. She was slowly rocking back and forth. Susie sat Melvin down beside her. The puppy tried to sit on Piper’s lap, but he wasn’t strong enough to make the climb. Susie picked him up and placed him on her sister’s legs.
Piper looked down at the little furball, over at the brown streaks, and then at Susie. “OK, little sister, Dogzilla, it is.”
