Northstar

Look out, Roomba. Evolution Robotics is looking to muscle in on your turf (er, carpet?). The Pasadena, Calif., company has a navigation system called NorthStar that's used in a robotic vacuum cleaner for specialty retailer The Sharper Image, among other gear; now it says it has a deal with a major appliance maker to develop a vacuum-bot set to sweep into living rooms in early 2008. Seen here is Sharper Image's $99 Evac. NorthStar projects lights onto a ceiling or other surface so that a detector on the robot can triangulate to find its location.