iRobot: Why Roomba Is Round
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 15 of January , 2009 at 3:41 am
Last week, we posted about iRobot’s new YouTube channel. I sort of rhetorically asked the question that iRobot mentioned in their video: why is Roomba round?
I guess someone over at iRobot must read BotJunkie (woohoo!), because they’ve actually answered the question on YouTube:
Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m impressed. It took iRobot a single day to have the answer up on YouTube, given by one of the engineers involved in the original design. It wasn’t just my question, either… iRobot has answered a few others so far, including what the most expensive component of the Roomba is, when Roomba will run Linux (PackBots already do, I think), and what iRobot thinks about medical robots. Looks like all you have to do is leave a comment on this video, and they’ll get right back to you. It’s a great idea they’ve got going on here, and I really hope they can keep it up. As for me, I have a couple questions that I’d love to have iRobot answer:
-What can we expect in the Roomba 700 series?
-When can I get an iRobot Mowmylawnba?
Or more seriously, how about this one: is there anything that iRobot has learned through the development and deployment of the PackBot and other military/industrial robots that has influenced iRobot’s home robots, or vice versa?
After the jump, find out the answer to this question: does the Roomba even have a vacuum in there somewhere?
Comments (1)
Category: Consumer, Educational
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Comment by Ironman
Made Thursday, 15 of January , 2009 at 12:15 pm
Now I don’t mean to be insensitive, but did tim always not have an arm?
i mean i usually notice when someone is missing a limb, but i could have sworn in his first video he has two, but now he’s got one.
Am I just losing it?
Comment by Al Umis
Made Sunday, 23 of August , 2009 at 6:13 am
Very observant, Ironman. Actually, Tim had three arms in the original video – two of which he lost in a freak Roomba accident just prior to this vide. He prefers not to share the details of the incident for family reasons.