Hasta La Gadget!

It’s been a full decade since the first Roomba scuttled off the assembly line and onto the floors of slatternly geeks. Understandably, iRobot’s looking back over the period, revealing that since then, it’s sold over six million of the units — with each one covering an average of 705 miles in its lifetime. Along the way, that army of Wall-Es-in-the-making have consumed around two million pounds of dirt, including the odd Lego brick, pet snake and wedding bands — although, as the videos below demonstrate, it’s normally quite friendly to children and animals.

Continue reading Happy 10th Birthday, Roomba! (video)

Filed under: Misc, Robots

Happy 10th Birthday, Roomba! (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Anthony, who needs some robotic help keeping his stone floors clean. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“We have stone tile floors in the kitchen and two kids. What wet floor cleaning robot would help us keep the floor clean, navigate the kitchen and handle the uneven stone floor tiles and grooves?”

We love original and different questions like this, the more original and different the better, so let’s help this gentleman out. It’s the old story of the high-tech being flustered by the stone age, but what’s the solution? Is it the iRobot Scooba, with its squeegee apparatus tucked underneath, or something else? Why not share your considerable experiences in the comments below.

Filed under: Household

Ask Engadget: best robot cleaner for stone tile floors? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Aug 2012 23:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iRobot may be best known for its household automatons, but the company’s expertise goes far beyond circular bots built for sweeping and scrubbing floors. Its Warrior and 110 FirstLook bots are built for the military, and now the Advanced Inflatable Robot (AIR) arm model is joining its armed forces brethren. The AIRarm prototype is essentially a Packbot whose metal arm’s been replaced with an inflatable version able to lift four times its own half-pound weight. That might not seem like much, but considering most rigid robot arms can only lift a fraction of their own weight, it represents a sizable gain in strength-to-weight ratio. Plus, the arm can get stronger by simply dialing up the air pressure. As an inflatable limb, it can also operate delicately around meatbags — just as the air pressure is increased for strength, it can be decreased when in close proximity to people so as not to injure them. For its prototype effort, iRobot’s going to get a $625,000 contract from DARPA to continue the AIRarm’s development, and you can see a bit of what that money will buy in the video after the break.

Continue reading iRobot’s AIRarm prototype bot has an inflatable arm for manipulating objects, was built at DARPA’s behest

Filed under: Robots

iRobot’s AIRarm prototype bot has an inflatable arm for manipulating objects, was built at DARPA’s behest originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 07:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iRobot has just launched two new cleaning robots. You may already be familiar with the Roomba family of vacuum robots which is getting a new addition with the Roomba 650, Roomba 630 and Roomba 620.  With this new series 600, iRobot has improved the waste bin efficiency so that users don’t have to empty it as often. At the same time, the company has added an acoustic sensor to detect areas that are more dirty so the 600 Series can spend more time on them. This version is an incremental improvement and will replace the 500 Series. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Cocorobo; Sharp’s Talking Vacuum Cleaner Has Different Moods, iRobot introduces the Scooba 230 and Roomba 700 series,

With Roomba being the household name that it is, it can be easy to forget that iRobot also makes robots of the outdoor persuasion. In fact, though, the company’s been selling its Looj gutter-cleaning bots for five years now, occasionally treating us to demos involving leaves, dirt and fake roofs. Today the company announced the third-generation model, the Looj 330, which has been completely re-tooled to add a four-stage auger, multiple speed settings, an automated “Clean” mode and a lithium-ion battery. It’s also a bit more compact this time around, increasing the likelihood it’ll fit your gutter.

Meanwhile, for those of you who can’t bring yourselves to spend $700 on a robotic vacuum cleaner, iRobot is adding some entry-level models to its Roomba lineup: the 620, 630 and 650. Though these cost about half the price of the flagship offerings, they actually feature many of the same technologies, including iAdapt, the sensor arrangement that allows Roomba to crisscross the floor like it does. Here, though, the cosmetic design is different, and you also won’t find bells and whistles like capacitive touchscreens or fine Hepa filters. What’s more, these guys only use acoustic sensors to detect debris, whereas the pricier models add optical sensors to pick up on lighter particles, like fuzz.

All of these products are available now, with the Looj 330 going for $299 and the Roomba 600 series starting at $330. Not in the market for a cleaning bot? You can at least get a vicarious thrill out of our Luge hands-on video, embedded after the break for your viewing pleasure. And yes, those are Goldfish and m&m’s flying out of that gutter. It rains snack food here in New York City.

Continue reading iRobot trots out Looj 330 gutter-cleaning robot, three entry-level Roombas (video)

Filed under: Household, Robots

iRobot trots out Looj 330 gutter-cleaning robot, three entry-level Roombas (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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