iRobot Names Jeffrey Beck home robots president

iRobot has announced a new president for its home robots division, which is struggling domestically with the recession. Jeffrey Beck, an executive with AMETEK, Danaher and Emerson Electronics, has a robotics background but does not appear to have a background in consumer products and instead seems to have more of a military background.

My guess is after the flameouts of previous chiefs with backgrounds as marketers, Colin Angle realized he needed someone to run the nuts-and-bolts side of the business (i.e., an engineer who can make quality improvements to the Roomba, Scooba, etc., and develop new products).

I think this is a smart concept -- and follows the Apple model (which should be the model for this company.) You hire tech gurus to run the tech divisions, and you hire marketing gurus to run the marketing division.

I still get the sense that Colin Angle is still learning how to run a company. And you can read all the books about it you want, you can calculate every decision, but what it comes down to is hiring the right people for the job. Hopefully he hit the target this time.

Tags: iRobot

iRobot Seaglider Loses Out On Navy Contract to Teledyne, Webb Research

iRobot and Bluefin Robotics apparently both lost out to Teledyne and Webb Research in the Navy's big ocean glider AUV contract. Teledyne won the competition with an award for up to $52 million through 2014. Read it and weep.
That's probably a $10-20 million bet down the drain for now. Teledyne will now have a big advantage in this nascent market, although perhaps iRobot can get back in the game at some point. The military usually likes to keep at least two firms competing with each other, right? Although apparently there were four bidders. Don't know who the fourth was.
Teledyne had boasted that its Slocum glider's rudder gives it better maneuverability and its system for harvesting energy from temperature gradients could allow gliders to stay at sea for years at a time.
So, iRobot had the better name, seems like Slocum may have had the better tech?
What's interesting also is that Webb Research (of Massachusetts) was in iRobot's back yard literally when Teledyne snapped it up, and iRobot had to go all the way to University of Washington to get the Seaglider. And the Navy was supposed to be the most friendly to iRobot because of the admiral on board, Joe Dyer. Also odd was that the contract announcement was delayed for several months -- I hope for nothing fishy! I'm afraid I don't think I'll ever trust the integrity of the contracting process after the Jameel Ahed fiasco, Ahem. At least this time we're losing out to a real company, not the basement of a dentist's office and a former iRobot engineer!

At any rate, this is all chicken feed compared to SUGV. Long live SUGV! If we lose out on that, it'll be time to pack up shop.

Thanks, Bob!
Tags: iRobot, Seaglider

Hamster driven Roomba

We've seen this before, but the L.A. Times, Fox News and others are highlighting this hamster-driven Roomba video:


Tags: iRobot, robot

iRobot Enjoys Free Labor

iRobot fans are providing the company with free labor via the company's web site, which is helping them cut down on customer service calls and costs. The free helpers get the moniker "robot lord" in return. Everybody's happy.

Tags: iRobot