iRobot

This Poor Robot Vacuum Has to Suck Fukushima’s Radioactive Trash

iRobot’s best known for the robots that clean your living room, not robots that clean crippled nuclear reactors. But they leant a hand to Japan’s infamously infirm power plant for some very, very messy work. The company sent four of their Warriors, ass-kicking, heavy-lifting robots made for hauling rather than dusting. Slap on some improvised…

Tech News Sam Biddle Jul 8

Scooba 230: My Beloved, Adorable, Floor Cleaning Robo-Slave

The 230 is the nook, cranny, and floor-scrubbing baby brother of the Scooba family by iRobot. Taking up little more space than a CD, it’s only a few inches tall. It won’t replace your mop, but it’ll tirelessly try. Like The cleaning itself is a cinch. Fill ‘er up, plop ‘er down, hit the CLEAN…

Reviews Sam Biddle May 18

Super-Geek Builds DIY Chatbot to Speak to His Fiancée

Johnny Chung Lee has hacked the Wiimote, helped Microsoft develop Kinect and recently started working at Google. This last career move meant moving away from his fiancée, so he did what any self-respecting geek would do: he built a video chat robot. Click to viewLee’s robot is effectively Skype on wheels: a dedicated netbook mounted…

Tech News Jacob Aron Feb 11

The Smallest Robot Floor-Washer? It’s Got To Be iRobot’s Scooba 230

There are plenty of robot vacuum cleaners on the market right now (one of which keeps mounting the foot of my curtains like a randy dog), but iRobot’s Scooba 230 can fit between bathroom furniture like nothing else. The 230 is just 3.5-inches tall, and 6.5-inches in diameter, and while it might take longer mopping…

Tech News Kat Hannaford Jan 3

Military Roomba Cleans Land Mines With Explosions

Like its domestic ancestor, iRobot’s new military robot is also a cleaning machine. But instead of dust devils, this one cleans land mines and barbwire obstacles. It works using the Mk7 Anti-personell Obstacle Breaching System. Not subtle, but extremely effective. The robot—called Warrior—is like a light version of the British Python and the American M58…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Jun 1

The Navy’s Fleet of Uber Classified Super Ultra High Tech Ship Cleaning Robots

The robots that scrub the decks on the USS Freedom? They’re just simple Roombas. The three bots go by the names Scooba Stevens, Chief Miles O’Brien, and ITSN Unger, referencing Big Daddy, Star Trek and The Odd Couple, respectively. Very cute, but little do we know, DARPA charges us like $250,000 after slapping on a…

Tech News Mark Wilson Feb 19

Robot Vacuum Cleaner. With Lasers. Robots. Lasers. Cleaning. Awesome.

This new Neato vacuum cleaner has one trick up its nozzle that your average Roomba doesn’t—lasers. I’m sold! Anyone who’s ever used a Roomba robot cleaner before will know that it bumps into furniture regularly, even mounting curtains if your back is turned. This new Neato (New! Improved! Neato!) uses a Room Positioning System with…

Tech News Kat Hannaford Dec 16

Deadly Viper Killed by iRobot Roomba

There are worse things to worry about in the Middle East than a robotic vacuum cleaner, but to the viper who thought it’d be a cozy place to sleep, it proved to be the end of his violent, snakey existence. The vipera palaestinae, as his parent snake gods christened him, had wound himself so tightly…

Tech News Kat Hannaford Nov 27

Flesh Blob Robot Makes Its Crawly Debut

iRobot, makers of the Roomba sweeper and Packbot military robots, has just prototyped this squashy bot that can squeeze through tiny holes. They call it Chembot, for chemical robot. Now they’ve released a video of Chembot moving. IEEE has posted this cool video explaining the bot, and showing how it moved about a year ago.…

io9 Annalee Newitz Oct 14

iRobot Makes First Version of T-1000 or Number Six—We Will All Die Anyway

Gizmodo’s bullpen five minutes ago. Me: “Holy f*ck. Check this.” Matt: “We’re all dead.” Me: “We’re so f*cked.” Wilson: “Soft robotics. That’s a scary phrase.” Jason: “You mean a sexy phrase. Mmmm. Soft robots.” Wilson: “Now, jamming skin… That is sexy. Jammable slurry. Wow, a little hot under the collar here. This really is nuts.”…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Oct 13

Creepy: iRobot’s “My Real Baby”

Meet the offspring of iRobot, and Transformers creator Hasbro. No, really. Back in 2000, the two companies teamed up on a project to create a baby doll called “My Real Baby” that had emotionally expressive animatronic facial expressions. One look at this pic could explain why the project was later discontinued. [Ingenious’ Flickr via Robot…

Tech News Danny Allen Aug 7

iRobot Patents Call For Potty-Trained Roomba

The Roomba autonomous vacuum / kitten transportation vehicle may be able to go potty all by itself like its cuddly counterparts if these patent applications from iRobot ever come to fruition. https://gizmodo.com/roombas-are-fun-for-cats-of-all-ages-5142590 Apparently, there are at least a dozen designs have been considered—designs that would turn the Roomba dock into a litter box of sorts.…

Tech News Sean Fallon Jun 1

Roomba Patent Solves Pesky Corner-Cleaning Problem With Simple Geometry

Roombas have evolved over the years into a fairlyimpressive product, except when it comes to corners. Apparently bothered by this, iRobot’s engineers have patented a Roomba with a corner specialty. The secret trick: it’s square. https://gizmodo.com/irobot-roomba-610-professional-series-review-5145781 Roombas have traditionally avoided angular designs in the pursuit of maneuverability, settling on circular shapes that lend themselves well…

Tech News John Herrman May 26

Roombas Explore Their Creative Side

Roombas may seem like happy little domestic appliances, wobbling around your apartment cleaning up after you. But they’re secretly hatching desires to become the next great robo-artist. Just look at this time-elapse photo. The picture above shows an 11-minute exposure of a Roomba cleaning a room with an LED on its back. The LED was…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 18

Punk iRobot Tags Floors With Its Powder Graffiti

This is what happens when a Roomba gets kicked around by abusive parents—it rebels against society, joins a gang and vandalizes our communities. Apparently this Roomba has been modified with inkjet printer parts so it can create bitmap patterns on the floor with colored powders. Damn you rebel Roomba! Cut your hair, stop snorting “powder”,…

Tech News Sean Fallon May 11

Hamster-Controlled Roomba Lets Your Hamster Decide What Gets Cleaned

Sure, a Roomba will methodically and accurately clean your floors, but wouldn’t it be more fun to let chaos reign by throwing the controls of your robotic vacuum over to a hamster? Some engineers with some free time on their hands decided to retrofit a Roomba with a mechanism that allowed it to be controlled…

Biology Adam Frucci Mar 4

iRobot Roomba 610 Professional Series Review

The Gadget: The Roomba Professional 610—the most powerful Roomba EVER—is made for large areas like offices, businesses, and big homes. It comes with two interchangeable bins, extra brushes and filters, and two virtual walls. The Price: $549 The Verdict: Although the Roomba Pro—which we lovingly dubbed “Calculon Jr.”—is meant to be the tough, industrial one…

Reviews Andi Wang Feb 4

Gadget Deals of the Day

You could go out tonight, spend lots of money, get super drunk and hook up with a really attractive member of the opposite sex. Or you could stay in, make Easy Mac and shop. Computing • LaCie 750 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive for $88.24 (normally $125). • iRobot® Looj 120 Gutter Cleaning Robot…

Tech News Mark Wilson Jan 16

iRobot Looj V.2 Cleans Gutters, Probably Has Other Unspeakable Uses

Here’s Looj, iRobot’s second generation of—get this—The World’s Only Gutter Cleaning Robot. Just put Looj in the gutter and operate it via remote controller. According to them, it is more efficient than the previous. The iRobot Looj Gutter Cleaning Robot drives easily under gutter straps, propelled by a three-stage auger that dislodges and eliminates dirt,…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Jan 8

Unreal Snooping Bot Can Grow from 25 Inches to 20 Feet

So weird. This iRobot Packbot has a Situational Awareness Mast built-in, a surveillance system which can grow from 25 inches to 20 feet lifting 200 pounds, on its top configuration. The mechanism is very ingenious: Developed for military and applications by Geosystems, the Situational Awareness Mast doesn’t use a telescopic design to extend itself, which…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Dec 30

This Poor Robot Vacuum Has to Suck Fukushima’s Radioactive Trash

Scooba 230: My Beloved, Adorable, Floor Cleaning Robo-Slave

Super-Geek Builds DIY Chatbot to Speak to His Fiancée

The Smallest Robot Floor-Washer? It’s Got To Be iRobot’s Scooba 230

Military Roomba Cleans Land Mines With Explosions

The Navy’s Fleet of Uber Classified Super Ultra High Tech Ship Cleaning Robots

Robot Vacuum Cleaner. With Lasers. Robots. Lasers. Cleaning. Awesome.

Deadly Viper Killed by iRobot Roomba

Flesh Blob Robot Makes Its Crawly Debut

iRobot Makes First Version of T-1000 or Number Six—We Will All Die Anyway

Creepy: iRobot’s “My Real Baby”

iRobot Patents Call For Potty-Trained Roomba

Roomba Patent Solves Pesky Corner-Cleaning Problem With Simple Geometry

Roombas Explore Their Creative Side

Punk iRobot Tags Floors With Its Powder Graffiti

Hamster-Controlled Roomba Lets Your Hamster Decide What Gets Cleaned

iRobot Roomba 610 Professional Series Review

Gadget Deals of the Day

iRobot Looj V.2 Cleans Gutters, Probably Has Other Unspeakable Uses

Unreal Snooping Bot Can Grow from 25 Inches to 20 Feet

Galaxy S26 Ultra Now Available for $480 as Samsung Expands Trade-In Offers With Extra Savings on Buds4 Pro

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One of the Messiest Loose Ends from NFT Mania Has Finally Been Tied Up

The OpenAI Foundation’s New Alzheimer’s Effort Helps Demystify ‘AI Will Cure All Diseases’

The Nazis’ Most Notoriously Complex Cryptographic Machine Is Now Available Online

‘Good Omens’ Season 3 Is Still Just One Episode, Despite Being Called That

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RFK Jr. Will Take on Joe Rogan for Podcaster Supremacy

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