Robots, corporate sabotage, irobot, packbot, plans, robotic fx, stolen, xbot

iRobot, Corporate Sabotage, Stolen Plans and Destroyed Evidence

Noah Shachtman over at Wired has a very interesting look at iRobot's six year battle with Robotic FX, a company started by a former employee who allegedly (and probably) stole schematics and plans in order to build a competitor. There's too much detail to work into a short summary, but Jameel Ahed, the former employee, was caught by a private investigator deleting documents and shredding CDs containing data that belonged to iRobot.

What's even more interesting is that the old phrase of "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids" might be applicable here, with Ahed standing a pretty good chance (thanks to a mysterious military contract backer) of getting away with this scheme if he didn't destroy evidence. After all, even the military contacts who were trying to choose between vendors were angling for his robot to win. [Wired]

5:00 PM on Mon Apr 28 2008
By Jason Chen
4,178 views
19 comments

Comments

ideaman2020 at 05:20 PM on 04/28/08
Reply by Email
*

Was anyone else creeped out by the sentence "In those days, the company was ... designing toys for Hasbro and doing research for Darpa."?
grayskyz at 05:28 PM on 04/28/08
Reply by Email
*

I think this could be settled only one way.

ROBOT WARS!

[en.wikipedia.org]
outinthedark at 05:38 PM on 04/28/08
Reply by Email
*

Great read...interesting sub plots in the story I did not know about before...
GizMadone at 05:54 PM on 04/28/08
Reply by Email
*

FFS, when will the i-prefix die?

With the obvious exception of Apple (the original), placing an "i" in front of a product's name is no longer cool. Instead, it screams of "me-too" marketing and a total lack of originality.
Xavoc at 06:03 PM on 04/28/08
Reply by Email
*

@GizMadone: As opposed to it being a play on Asimov's "I Robot"??
takemetoyourtoaster at 06:10 PM on 04/28/08
Reply by Email
*

@GizMadone: If you think of a (cooler?) more interesting one that will catch peoples attention (it caught yours, even if it was bad attention) than please tell the world because it annoys me too, but it is an easy marketing idea
m4ximusprim3 at 06:12 PM on 04/28/08
Reply by Email
*

@Xavoc: Shhh. He's ranting! Let the man cleanse his soul.
Candyman at 06:15 PM on 04/28/08
Reply by Email
*

@GizMadone:
Dude, iRobot was around WAAAAAAAYYYYYY before the iPod. Apple didn't invent the letter "i" FFS!
bluebuilder at 06:16 PM on 04/28/08
Reply by Email
*

@GizMadone:

Apple fanboy alert! You think Apple invented the letter 'i'?

Branding that way was around a long time before Apple copied it.
mhlaxp at 06:51 PM on 04/28/08
Reply by Email
*

To clear things up definitively:

iRobot was founded in 1991. Apple's first iProduct, the iMac, launched in 1998, and iPod was copywritten in 2003, and gained by Apple in 2005. Around this time, sources day, Steve Jobs could be seen running around shouting "me too!"
mikecoscia at 08:42 PM on 04/28/08
Reply by Email
*

Ah screw iRobot, Robot FX may have stolen their plans but they built a better robot for half the cost. Now there is going to be more solders without robots to help them disarm bombs in the field. All thanks to iRobot.
Luizzle at 12:20 AM on 04/29/08
Reply by Email
*

Not that any of this matters anymore now that the one robot went berzerk and started waving its gun around..
bluebuilder at 07:44 AM on 04/29/08
Reply by Email
*

@Luizzle:
That only matters for armed robots without a "human in the loop."

Most of iRobot's offerings are directly controlled by a human. So it does matter, actually.
dirk1965 at 08:00 AM on 04/29/08
Reply by Email
*

Sounds like the early days of Microsoft and Apple.
SeventhExile at 09:16 AM on 04/29/08
Reply by Email
*

@ideaman2020:
Ha now its the individual employee that works for both.
3 of my friends, myself included just were just offered a co-op with FisherPrice designing toys. At the same time we will be working on department of defense research at RIT.
SeventhExile at 09:17 AM on 04/29/08
Reply by Email
*

damn I can't write anymore..

grammar is what I is most are not good at apparently..

we should really get a delete comment button going sometime..
jtheletter at 09:51 AM on 04/29/08
Reply by Email
*

@Luizzle: @bluebuilder: OK kids, first off, there are NO armed robots without a human in the loop, at least not in the US military. Second, the article about a SWORDS bot moving uncommanded a) was retracted as being almost completely false and b) the system never "went berzerk" as you claim Luizzle. The SWORDS bots are still deployed. Go reread the articles, get your facts straight.
And finally, the few incidents of uncommanded motion were years ago during testing, and have never occurred on models in the field. Does anyone believe that every product is 100% perfect BEFORE release? Do you think car companies crash test vehicles for fun, or is it maybe to find dangerous flaws before they're sold?
ideaman2020 at 11:42 AM on 04/29/08
Reply by Email
*

@SeventhExile: Ahh... good old RIT... my alma mater...

memories.....
brothhunter at 12:38 AM on 04/30/08
Reply by Email
*

@mhlaxp:

silly, silly. "clear things up definitively," you say! Do your research! This is from the iRobot company profile on Yahoo Finance:
"The company was founded in 1990. It was formerly known as IS Robotics, Inc. and changed its name to IS Robotics Corporation in 1994. Further, the company changed its name to iRobot Corporation in 2000. iRobot Corporation is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts."
So Apple put the "i" in front of their product before iRobot did. However, iRobot is obviously playing off of Asimov's iRobot, not Apple's "i".