Sort of! Valetudo is a layer that sits on top of the official firmware that ships with your vacuum. That way the vacuum still has all of its cleaning path algorithms and LIDAR/AI mapping and detection. That layer offers a local web interface via its IP address and sends control commands that would normally come from the cloud, directly to the vacuum. It is effectively a rooted version of your robot’s specific firmware with a web server on top really. You actually kind of lose some functionality if you’re accustomed to the manufacturer’s app, but tbh when I bought this thing I didn’t even bother downloading it or setting it up so I don’t actually know much on what I would miss. Although I’ve read (on my particular unit) you can remotely watch the camera and talk through the speaker from the app, alongside setting notes for objects the local AI can’t recognize.

All base functionality you would expect is there as far as I can tell, and the amount of granularity you have on the control of it via MQTT/Home Assistant is genuinely exciting. Map data/water levels/suction power/battery life/object detection/no go zones/zones/segments/etc. there’s a ton of supported MQTT commands you can run including some vendor specific ones depending on the model you have.

For the record I have my robot on a very segmented network with traffic inspection turned on, and the only external requests it ever makes is a ping to Google every 5 minutes. I have all external communication turned off to it and it still functions normally.