Robot Vacuum reveals lessons in finding hidden dirt and finding home

Against my better judgment we purchased a vacuum robot this spring. It’s not a Roomba, but it’s better, according to my sister who enthusiastically recommended it.
We have a light-colored dog and dark-colored flooring so pet hair dust bunnies make daily appearances.
When the robot came on sale for half price, I clicked “add to cart,” “proceed to checkout” and “buy.”
A week later a big box showed up on our doorstep, with another box inside it and finally a box inside that one that held carefully packed electronics that looked like an oversized hockey puck.
It came with a sizable instruction book and a tri-fold card labeled “instructions at a glance.”
The book is still in its cellophane wrapper, but the front page of “instructions at a glance” helped me plug in the base charger (also known as “home”), place the device on the charger (for the initial 4-hour charge) and insert batteries in the remote control.
I later learned the buttons on the remote can command the robot to clean along the edges of a room, clean in a concentrated circle, clean randomly around the house and come home.
The default route must be “random,” because pressing the “auto” button on the device prompted it to back out of “home” base and head across the room until it encountered a pair of boots. It reversed sharply and continued around the boots.
It continued in this way ping-ponging between objects on the floor and doorframes and wallboards all the while eating pet hair and debris.
While the thing was indeed cleaning the house, its work pattern was so random I had a hard time appreciating it.
For example, it wheeled right on by a big hairball on its way to the wall and never did come back to get it.
Meanwhile, it circled the coffee table on the living room carpet repeatedly, bouncing off the couch, love seat and chair as it went.
It must have been dirty in there, because eventually a red light appeared and the thing stopped with an urgent beep to indicate a full canister.
Sure enough. A pile of dirt, debris and pet hair emptied into the garbage can. Gross.
I decided that was a good time to test the “home” button, which sent the device in search of its charging base.
Which it never did find.
So I picked it up and plopped it in the kitchen near the charger. It still couldn’t find home.
As long as it was roaming around on the hard surface, I turned on the vacuum mode, hoping it would find the dust bunnies it bypassed the first go-round.
It didn’t.
It made a beeline for the living room where it promptly circled the coffee table. Again.
While I was happy it was cleaning the carpet, the visible dirt on the dark hard surface flooring remained.
I usually clean the obvious stuff first, and if time and motivation allow, I do the rest.
I wondered if the robot was teaching a lesson.
We all have dirt, visible or not, and sometimes it’s the dirt we can’t see that we should worry about the most.
And apparently finding home isn’t a big deal.