iRobot's new 'robust' Roomba - What's the biggest thing a Roomba has ever been able to suck up? 'The biggest thing ever sucked up by a Roomba was a dead rat that was hiding under somebody's--well, actually, it was a reporter's--bed,' said iRobot CEO Colin Angle. 'Yeah, they were demo-testing in a home and it came out and the guy opened it up and there was a dead rat in the Roomba. It had died underneath his bedside table, or his bed or something like that and he never knew. So, that was kind of extreme...It was not a large rat,' he said. The Roomba 500 series robots have larger dustbins and come with an extra filter. The filter, which is also about a third larger than the one on previous models, is still not a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter. Angle argued that a HEPA is unnecessary because the Roomba is designed to kick out much less air than an upright vacuum does.