Obstacle avoidance is one of those robot vacuum features that just makes your life so much easier when it comes to having to worry about running a cleaning. With the Z60 I dont have to babysit it and make sure every single item is picked up off the floor. It does a great job at recognizing and avoiding all kinds of obstacles and household items. Not having to worry about it getting stuck or not completing a cleaning because it ran something over is huge for me. I just have it run everyday on a schedule and I havent had any issues at all with it.