irobot

The military sees a need for a flying robot that can swoop into an enemy position, transition to wheel or track mode, and then get busy icing bad guys--something along the lines of the Griffon UGV/UAV Air Mobility System.

While unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can wing in quickly to reconnoiter or attack enemy positions, they can't follow a target into a cave or a building. Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), on the other hand, can enter structures, search for targets, and examine them at close range, but they're slower than UAVs, have less range, and are limited by … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Back in the '90s, iRobot worked on a robot that could help drill for oil.

Then oil dropped from $30 to $20 a barrel, and interest among potential customers dropped too, said iRobot CEO Colin Angle during a meeting at this week's Consumer Electronics Show here. With oil bouncing around $100 a barrel now, that chucked idea may make a comeback, he said.

Drilling for oil is sort of misnomer, Angle noted. The ground doesn't consist of hidden lakes of liquid petrochemicals. Instead, oil is encased in porous rock, Angle said. To get at it, oil drillers … Read more

In the world of robot makers--specifically, those making small, versatile, ground-hugging bots--for quite some time there were just two main contenders for Pentagon dollars: Foster-Miller and iRobot. Then along came an upstart named Robotic FX, which a few months back up-ended things by winning a $286 million deal from the Army to supply some 3,000 robots. And then, wouldn't you know it, iRobot took Robotic FX to court. The upshot? Today, that $286 million is headed iRobot's way.

Read about it on Wired's Danger Room blog: "'Unmanned Surge' Deal Reversed"

When the iRobot Scooba first came out a couple years ago, I remember thinking, "Dang, that's just the kind of floor-sweeping/vacuuming/mopping gizmo we could use here at Camp Cheapskate" (which tends to be a messy place). But then I saw the $400 price tag and grudgingly reached for my trusty old broom.

Well, proof positive that good things come to those who wait, Woot has the Scooba for just $99, plus a very fair $5 for shipping. However, as with all Woot.com deals, it's today (Black Friday) only, and when they're gone, … Read more

After years of development, a new class of weapon that uses computer-controlled electronic ignition instead of primers to fire projectiles may be finally taking its much coveted place in the U.S. military inventory.

Brisbane, Australia-based Metal Storm has delivered a four-barrel weapon to the Naval Surface Warfare Center for testing that uses a small electrical current instead a conventional firing pin to deliver stacked rounds at an astounding rate.

How astounding? Try 1 million rounds per minute. That's the rate, by the way, not the volume; still, there's no way you want to be anywhere near the … Read more

The U.S. District Court of Massachusetts has granted iRobot its requested injunction against Robotic FX's Negotiator robot.

iRobot has alleged that the Negotiator robot built by Robotic FX infringes on two of its patents for the PackBot military robot.

iRobot is also suing Robotic FX's president, Jameel Ahed, as an individual. The company has accused the former iRobot employee of misappropriating confidential PackBot information he had access to while working at iRobot and using it in his company's Negotiator robot.

"The precise terms of the injunction follow in a separate Order, which shall be issued … Read more

The winner of iRobot's amateur robot-building contest is a multi-functional home robot designed by Danh Trinh of Towson, Md., the company announced Tuesday.

Trinh's winning robot, called simply "Personal Home Robot," is a teleoperational robot controlled from a laptop using Microsoft NetMeeting. It's capable of doing things like watering plants, controlling appliances, giving out reminders, dancing, and acting as a media center.

Trinh won $5,000 for his invention.

Personal Home Robot can suck up water through a straw into an onboard reservoir and then deposit the water at another location, such as a dog … Read more

The company that ate the robot market, iRobot, has just received an order from the U.S. Army for 40 more PackBots, which means that will soon be more than 1,000 of these robots on active duty around the world.

Units ordered include some equipped with the ICx Fido Explosives Detector. Fido allows an operator to detect explosive vapors and particulates from munitions or IEDs from a safe distance using a game-style controller.

The 510 model was also included. It can lift 30 pounds and scoot around at almost 6 mph, climbs stairs, roll over rubble, rocks, mud and … Read more

Over at CNET News.com sister site TechRepublic, members raved about the iRobot Roomba's intelligent floor-cleaning prowess and expressed an interest in seeing one of these innovative gadgets cracked open. So Scott Wolf cracked open a Roomba purchased just for this purpose and learned a few things about how the device works.

See the photos of inside the iRobot Roomba