iRobot Roomba Kills Deadly Viper, Saves Kids

Shocking, but apparently true. A deadly viper died from headwounds as it wound itself inside a Roomba in Israel. Story at Botjunkie.

Tags: iRobot, Roomba

Roomba 550 Rockets to #1 at Amazon!

The Roomba 550 at Amazon is the No. 1 top seller today at Amazon.com.

We are featuring the Roomba 550 in our Roomba Buyers Guide.

We'll have a full Black Friday guide up before the big day too and will be updating during the day Friday on expected new deals.

-Thorn

Tags: iRobot, Roomba

Aussies, Koreans launch "Healthbots" collaboration

Australia and Korea are teaming up on health care robots, an area iRobot has targeted as its next big growth area. CNET has the story on "Charlie the Robot."

Tags: iRobot, healthbots

Geckosystems' CareBot enters home trials; aims to compete with iRobot

Geckosystems, a $1.6 million Pinksheet-listed company (GCKO.PK) based in Georgia, announced last week that it has started home trials of its CareBot eldercare/health care robot. This will compete with iRobot's new health care robot division. Gecko may be worth buying out just for the name CareBot:

CONYERS, Ga., Nov. 18, 2009 -- GeckoSystems Intl. Corp. (PINKSHEETS: GCKO) announced today that they have started limited in home evaluation trials for their first product, a fully autonomous personal companion home care robot, the CareBot™. ...
"Practical, cost effective mobile robot solutions are our primary goal. We are very pleased to begin our first in home trials of this new assistive care home appliance, a customizable personal companion robot with telepresence capabilities. The first step, integrating into the home environment, is customizing the voice reproduction (synthesis) in our verbal interaction software, GeckoChat, such that the care receiver can readily understand timely (using GeckoScheduler™) verbal reminders for their medications, upcoming TV shows, family visits, etc. The care receiver here is a ninety-three year old widow with short-term memory loss that is very similar to the symptoms of Alzheimer's victims, but without the continued degradation. Now we begin proving our long held belief that personal companion mobile robots, like the CareBot, can help tens of thousands of families take better care of their loved ones while saving significant monies," remarked Martin Spencer, President/CEO, GeckoSystems.
"In the near future, as we progress with our in home personal companion robot evaluation trials, we will be reporting on the social interaction responses of the care receiver --and the care giver-- to this new type of fully autonomous in home medical monitoring system," observed Spencer.
The elderly frequently endure loneliness and/or loss of independence when living in nursing homes or other assisted living facilities. This new type of remote medical monitoring system, a CareBot, will postpone, if not eliminate that trauma to them. Their families can now better manage the difficult decisions regarding the independence they allow their now dependent parent while minimizing the risk the adult care giver is willing to assume for a prudent level of independence for their now reliant parent.
Some believe that this new type of useful care giving help is approved and paid for through options such as the Assistive Technology Act of 1998, which broadens the definition, use, and funding of technology at home. Other sources include long-term care insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, Medicaid waivers, and (potentially) stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, under the provisions for health information technology and electronic medical records for acute care.
Like an automobile, mobile robots are made from steel, aluminum, plastic, and electronics, but with ten to twenty times the amount of software running. The CareBot has an aluminum frame, plastic shroud, two independently driven wheels, multiple sensor systems, microprocessors and several onboard computers connected in a local area network (LAN). The microprocessors directly interact with the sensor systems and transmit data to the onboard computers. The onboard computers each run independent, highly specialized cooperative/subsumptive artificial intelligence (AI) software programs, GeckoSavants™, which interact to complete tasks in a timely, intelligent and common sense manner. GeckoNav™, GeckoChat™ and GeckoTrak™ are primary GeckoSavants. GeckoNav is responsible for maneuvering, avoiding dynamic and/or static obstacles, seeking waypoints and patrolling. GeckoChat is responsible for interaction with the care-receiver such as answering questions, assisting with daily routines and reminders, and responding to other verbal commands. GeckoTrak, which is mostly transparent to the user, enables the CareBot to maintain proximity to the care-receiver using sensor fusion. The CareBot is an internet appliance that is accessible for remote video/audio monitoring and telepresence.

GeckoChat is one of several GeckoSavants that enable their new product, a personal companion robot, the CareBot. It employs voice recognition and synthesis. It is an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) expert system that enables meaningful dialogues between the care receiver/giver and the CareBot as determined and customized by the care giver(s). The voice synthesis can be customized as to flux, breathiness and cadence. The caregiver can further enhance the sound quality using the on board seven band frequency equalizer and amplifier for easier comprehension.
"Due to our international competition from the Pacific Rim, Europe, and domestic competition in the U.S. (See Competitive Note below.), we are gratified to make this 'world's first' announcement. With these in home trials now initiated and progressing, we expect to learn a great deal as to the reality of social interaction between human and robot in home settings," concluded Spencer.

Competitive Note:
The known competitive product offerings, or in development include, but are not limited to:
In Asia: Honda ("ASIMO"), Toyota ("Partner Robots"), Fujitsu (Frontech's "enon"), Sanyo ("FLATTHRU"), NEC ("PaPeRo"), Toshiba ("ApriAlpha", "ApriAttenda"), Samsung, Hitachi ("EMIEW"), Matsushita ("HOSPI"), Mitsubishi ("Wakamaru"), etc.
In Europe: Robosoft ("robuLAB10"), Robowatch, Dyson, Husqvarna, etc. are working to achieve their first personal robot trials, too.
In the U.S.: iRobot ("CiCi"), Mobile Robots ("PeopleBot"), RoboDynamics ("MILO"), Evolution Robotics, etc. are also still seeking to develop viable, cost effective personal companion robots with eldercare benefits.
Prestigious U.S. universities such as MIT, Georgia Tech, Stanford University, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Michigan, Virginia Tech, etc. are but a few of the domestic engineering schools engaged in personal companion robot research and development activities.
None of the foregoing have initiated in home evaluation trials of their personal companion home care mobile robots.

Here's a video of the dorky looking CareBot in action:


Tags: iRobot, robot, Carebot, Geckosystems, eldercare, robotics

Wichita TV station raves about Looj

A local TV station puts the iRobot Looj gutter cleaner through its paces.

Does it work?

Verdict: Yes!

Tags: iRobot, Looj

Medical robots featured on CNBC

I was watching Maria Bartiromo on CNBC tonight when a report came on showing InTouch Health's telepresence robots for hospitals. The report was very positive but said that the robot cost $200,000. One of the doctors on the show said that patients would want to see the doctor, not a robot with a doctor's head on a screen, but to me that's narcissism. Patients want to get well and want the best doctor available, even if it means a guy three states away who is only available on a screen.

Here's InTouch's web site. I wonder if this company, or one like it, could partner with iRobot or be a takeover candidate?

Tags: InTouch, robot

These are the medical droids we're looking for...

Boston blog Xconomy has profiled iRobot's new health care robotics division and has an interview with its distinguished new president, who has already turned himself into a multimillionaire with his own former company and is a Harvard grad with extensive robotics experience dating back decades (and is a Bell Labs brat to boot, son of a Bell Labs dude).

It's a must read.

thx, bbuderi

Tags: iRobot, droids

iRobot a Takeover Target?

I have speculated in the past that iRobot is ripe for a takeover by a defense contractor who would then sell or split off the consumer arm to help finance the purchase. The Boston Globe last week talked about speculation that iRobot could be sold, but quotes somebody saying buyers wouldn't want to have to deal with the two sides of iRobot's business. Perhaps, but I'm not convinced. With the SUGV orders starting to roll in en masse, a company like Boeing could very easily digest iRobot's military side and either keep the consumer business as is as a hobby or sell it to a company like Microsoft, whose CEO, Bill Gates, has been extremely enthusiastic about robots and the Roomba in particular in the past. A big advantage is that iRobot has a ton of technology but the price of a buyout -- probably under $1 billion, is easily digestible by numerous big companies. iRobot also would be able to offload costly accounting and back office costs to the bigger corporation, making it more profitable, and take advantage of technological synergies with bigger companies. For instance, I bet Boeing wouldn't mind having robots to clean its factories!

Thx, sugvee

Tags: iRobot,

Cool SUGV300 Promo Video from Boeing, iRobot

This video promoting iRobot's SUGV300 robot is a year-old, but I just found it today. It's very slick.

The Mission from Creative Technologies Inc. on Vimeo.

Tags: iRobot, SUGV

Reporter takes iRobot's SUGV for a spin

A reporter at the Lawrence, Kansas newspaper recently tried out the PackBot-based SUGV, and liked it.
The article notes how the SUGV will work in tandem with aerial surveillance and other sensors to help provide security and intelligence.
Key quote:
“I have been in the Army 10 years; this is exactly what I have been waiting nine years for,” said David Leyva, staff sergeant for the U.S. Army. “It’s about getting our soldiers where we need to and getting them home, and this is just another way of ensuring safety.”

Tags: iRobot, SUGV

iRobot's Pop-up Stores get noticed

iRobot's two new pop-up stores they have planned for this Christmas season as a pilot for a potential national rollout of mall-based stores got a write up this week. There is a trend towards using so-called pop-up stores with very short term leases and very low risk instead of signing long-term, 10- or 20-year leases. This strategy has become more feasible of late with so many storefronts empty in many of the nation's malls.

I've been advocating for years that iRobot take a page out of Apple's retail playbook and open up its own stores in high-traffic locations so they can demonstrate products. People need handholding when they are buying their first robot, and they need to see it demonstrated live, not sitting on a shelf next to a Bass-O-Matic. Permanent locations would also have the advantage of providing customer service -- and could even have a "genius" type designation for employees to troubleshoot dead Roombas. I could see such stores offering a $49 "Roomba Turbo-Clean" service for spiffying up your Roomba, for example, in addition to selling the full line of Roomba accessories.

Tags: iRobot,

Roomba Pac-Man Project Scores Mad YouTube Hits

First, there was Roomba Frogger. Now, Roomba Pac-Man has become a YouTube mini-sensation, with nearly 300,000 hits:



Tags: iRobot, Roomba, Robotics