Robot just declared chapter 11 bankruptcy. And though it’s being bought out, it’s hard to tell what that means for Roomba owners.

The best-known manufacturer of autonomous vacuums declared bankruptcy this week, and no one should be surprised.

Robot , the maker of the Roomba vacuum cleaner, filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday, saying that it would go private after being bought by Picea Robotics, its primary manufacturer.

While iRobot is selling itself off as scrap, let's remember what actually makes a good robovac.

Roomba maker iRobot has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but says that it doesn’t expect any disruptions to devices as the more than 30-year-old company is taken private under a restructuring process.

Picea Robotics and a business partner revealed it entered into a buyout deal with Roomba producer iRobot via court-supervised bankruptcy proceedings.

What went wrong was, in a sense, the same as what went right. iRobot created a market for self-piloting Dustbusters. The first Roombas, priced at $200 in 2002, were included that year in festive media lists of gadget present ideas alongside Apple’s iPod and DVD burners from Sony.