Army approves SUGV production!

The Army has approved Low Rate Initial Production of iRobot's Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV) following a major milestone review of the Brigade Combat Team mobilization, Boeing announced in a press release.

This is a major, although not unexpected, development for iRobot. The SUGV is the cornerstone of the company's future military aspirations, built on the success of the PackBot, and represents a transition from specialty robots intended primarily for specialized bomb disposal teams to everyday infantry robots that will see much higher volumes and revenue.

According to the press release, production will begin in 2010 and will go to brigades in the field in 2011. The release does not mention how many units will be procured.

Also of note, the SUGV was listed first by Boeing in its press release. I don't think that's a mistake. The SUGV is the one military piece of gee-whiz gear that everybody knows can have an immediate impact. You put the robot on the point, saving soldiers. It's that simple.

Need a refresher? Check out the SUGV video at the SUGV 300 web site.

Tags: iRobot, SUGV

PCMag interviews CEO of Neato Robotics, notes XV-11 vacuum is noisier, more powerful than iRobot's Roomba

Neato Robotics CEO Max Safai sat down for an interview with PCMag's Lance Ulanoff to talk about the all-new laser-guided Neato Robotics XV-11 Vacuum cleaner, which is set to go on sale for $399 shortly at Amazon and at premier online retailer Hammacher Schlemmer, which will likely offer it with its standard lifetime guarantee.

Among the highlights:
*The XV-11 is a lot louder than the Roomba, Ulanoff reports. Safai says this is because its vacuum cleaner is more powerful, and also notes that the more efficient laser-guided cleaning pattern enabled them to focus more power on the vacuum itself. The goal is to replace upright vacuums entirely, something that is hard to do with Roomba, given that it doesn't deep-clean carpets as well as a traditional upright nor does Roomba completely clean corners because it is round, unlike the XV-11. Nonetheless, having a much louder vacuum (check out the video below) could cause some people to prefer Roomba, which is quiet enough to have on while you are doing something else in the room.
* The battery lasts about an hour, versus about two for Roomba. Sounds like the more powerful vacuum is to blame, but Safai notes that the XV-11 will return to its home base to recharge and then automatically return to where it left off to finish the job. Sounds promising.
* The underside of the XV-11 is very similar to the underside of the Roomba.
* The XV-11 recognizes doors and won't go through them unless it is in whole house mode, in which case it will systematically go from room to room to room, all without virtual walls. Pretty cool.
* At one pount, Lance seems puzzled by the name and asks if that's the full name, and Safai says it is the full name. Sounds like a company full of geeks! I actually think this is a positive. Too many companies focus too much on cute-sounding names and not enough on the tech. If they get the tech right, nobody will care what the darn thing is called.



Also check out our coverage of the Neato XV-11 kickoff announcement.

Tags: iRobot, Neato Robotics

CyPhy Works Lands UAV Robotics Grant, formerly The Droid Works; Helen Greiner's New Company

iRobot Co-Founder Helen Greiner has renamed her company CyPhy Works from The Droid Works to differentiate it from the Motorola Droid smartphone, and has won a multimillion-dollar grant to develop unmanned aerial vehicles to inspect bridges. Bridge inspections now are done by hand, with 300,000 bridges inspected every year -- a potentially big market. She's partnering with Georgia Tech, and is hiring. Nice to see in this crappy economy!

Mass High Tech has the story with quotes from Helen.

The company's web site is currently in "Stealth Mode."

Tags: Helen Greiner, UAV, bridges, engineering

Invasion of the Roomba Clones III

The invasion of the Roomba clones is on! First there was the Neato Robotics XV-11 and the LG Roboking II, then there was the Asus Ecleaner, and now we have something called the Robo Shine Turbo RX1 Robot Vacuum. Seriously, could they have come up with a cheesier name? I think this is simply a rebadged generic Roomba knockoff, but don't know *which* generic knockoff they are rebadging. Robo Shine has a cheesy website that says they were founded in November in Birmingham, England. The expected YouTube video is below. From the website and the video, the Robo Shine Turbo RX1 comes with a tallish Roomba clone with UV light, "mopping" attachment (really just a way to add a swiffer-like device to the bottom), virtual wall, self-charging home base, yada yada yada. The price is 189 pounds, which translates to $303 -- a bit pricey in my book for a no-name vacuum brand with zero track record. But it is a pretty red color! (BTW, what is it with never showing the bottom of these vacuums in the videos? You know, the part that actually cleans?? They also never want to show them on carpet. At any rate, it looks like the market is now being flooded with Roomba clones, which could mean overtime for iRobot's lawyers. It could also, however, mean more publicity for robotic vacuums and I don't think will hurt iRobot overall that much. The Roomba is the iPod of robotic vacuums, and everybody else so far is vying to be SanDisk. We may have to reevaluate that when we see the laser-guided Neato in action, of course.

I seem to remember seeing something like the Robo Shine model before, but the original name escapes me. Readers have any idea who built this?

As promised, here is the video:


Tags: Roomba, robot

ASUS ECleaner, Latest Roomba Competitor, Launches in Taiwan, China; Price $155

BREAKING: Asustek Computer is getting into the robotic vacuum business. The Taiwan Economic News. The Taiwan newspaper says that ASUS Ventures and its subsidiary AGAiT Technology Corp. are releasing an all-new Roomba competitor called the ECleaner in China and Taiwan by the end of the month.
According to the article, Asus intends to undercut the price of the Roomba, charging under 5,000 Taiwainese currency (about $155 according to Google's conversion), which the article says is half the price of comparable Roomba models. The ECleaner appears to have a similar list of features, including a self-charging home base, a spinning side brush, front bumper, round shape, etc.
From the YouTube video below and a translated version of the company's website, the folks at Asus appeared to copy much of Roomba's functionality, with a few upgrades and a few downgrades. Let's start with the upgrades: the ECleaner includes a 6000-hour UV light for disinfecting the floor (this is not an industry first; the Infinuvo Cleanmate QQ-1, QQ-2 and QQ-3 also include a UV light). It also has a slot for spreading "fragrance" if you are the type that likes to muck up your house with artificial odors (sames as Cleanmate). And there is a remote control that fits nicely into the top of the vacuum (same as Cleanmate). But all of these upgrades are essentially gimmicks. Now, the downgrades. Available in red or yellow, ECleaner appears to be about an inch taller than Roomba (10 cm versus 7.6 cm), meaning that in some homes it won't be able to get under couches, etc. The ECleaner's 2500 mAh battery works for 90 minutes -- about enough to clean three rooms -- before it has to recharge on its self-charging home base. It takes 3 hours to recharge, just like Roomba. The 3000 mAh Roomba APS battery lasts about 2 hours, although iRobot has come out with weaker batteries of late as well. The new ECleaner also appears to be slower than Roomba judging from the video. There is no mention of a scheduling capability.
The article notes that Asus competitor Acer has acquired a stake in iRobot (I checked, this is not new. Acer was one of iRobot's pre-IPO investors and an Acer exec sits on iRobot's board of directors), and that may have prompted Asus to develop a robotic vacuum to compete with its Taiwanese rival.
My sense is that despite the low price, this is no more serious a threat to iRobot than the Cleanmate was, given that the Cleanmate was a bust that is hard to find anywhere. The $399 square-front Neato Robotics XV-11, on the other hand, may have more luck, if its cleaning performance lives up to its hype.

Here's the not-so-exciting YouTube video:


And here's the robot's cleaning algorithm:


Thx for the tip, byronangel

Tags: iRobot, robot, Roomba, Asus, AGAIT, ECleaner, Cleanmate

Neato Robotics XV-11 Robotic Vacuum, LG Roboking take aim at iRobot's Roomba Empire

For the first time, iRobot's dominant Roomba vacuuming robot franchise may be under serious threat. Two new competitors have announced this week that they will start shipping next year, and promise to fix some of the shortcomings with the Roomba.

First up is the Neato Robotics XV-11 (pictured), from a Silicon Valley startup I've never heard of before. This exciting new contender looks strikingly similar to patent filings iRobot made for a square-front Roomba first reported by Robot Stock News, which as of yet it has not produced. Neato promises in its Dec. 16 press release announcing the XV-11 and in videos at the company's slick web site, NeatoRobotics.com, that its robotic vacuum is the most powerful on the market, uses lasers to navigate in straight lines instead of Roomba's random algorithms, and navigates around objects instead of hitting them. All the better - Neato's square front allows it to get into corners, which Roomba can't with its round shape. (Indeed, iRobot's own patent filing said that this would be the advantage of a square-front vac!)
At any rate, this could set off an interesting intellectual property fight, and I'm sure iRobot will be acquiring a Neato robotic vacuum ASAP to see if there is anything that they can sue over. iRobot has a number of patents on its Roomba and Scooba products, and has been aggressive in filing lawsuits in the past.
The XV-11 also claims to clean faster than Roomba because it maps the floor and goes in straight lines, which could be a big plus, and it has a self-charging dock, virtual wall technology and scheduling ability, just like a Roomba.
But it does appear to have a pretty big drawback -- it carries a list price of $399 -- about what a very high end Roomba costs. But Roombas can be had for as cheap as $129, and even the latest generation model starts at $212, so you'd be hard pressed to justify the extra price just for corner cleaning. The real test in my mind will come when people actually start using it. Does it get tangled in cords? Does it do well on carpets? Is the dirt bin bigger or smaller than Roomba? How about reliability? Etc. Neato comes with a 30-day money back guarantee, so I'll probably take it for a spin once they are available in February. Why not? Also curious is that the company doesn't have any pictures of the underside of the robot. Are there counter-rotating brushes like the Roomba? Would be interesting to see, but maybe they don't want to tip iRobot off to their design just yet, and will show more leg at CES 2010? Judging by the spare parts, there is a $39 replacement brush, so it isn't just a straight vacuum. A 2-pack of replacement batteries is also just $59, much cheaper than the $89 Roomba wants for just one replacement battery on the 500 Series.
The company's FAQ says that retailers including high-end retailer Hammacher Schlemmer and Amazon.com will start taking orders for the XV-11 in January. (Getting Hammacher on board is a huge coup; they have been a long-term iRobot partner).

The upgraded RoboKing, meanwhile, may be a bit less exciting -- it uses a conventional Roomba-style design, and will likely be priced like previous Roboking models -- much, much higher than Roomba. At any rate, the new Roboking is said to be 30% shorter and 30% faster and significantly quieter than its predecessor while sporting a second camera. Color me unimpressed. How does it CLEAN? For some reason (patents?), the Korean robot vacs have never made it to the United States. VIdeo with goofy music is available here.

iRobot, meanwhile, appears likely to retaliate mainly with a tweaked version of the Roomba 500 Series featuring an upgraded vacuum system and bin that it is dubbing "Aero Vac" technology. The new Roomba 536 is the first iteration.

Let the robot wars begin! And may the best robot win.

(thanks, byronangel)

Tags: Neato, Neato Robotics, XV-11, Roomba, robotic vacuums, Roboking, iRobot, robot, vacuum,

iRobot Formally Announces "Spark" Education Program

iRobot yesterday formally announced its new Spark initiative we noted a while back. The press release is at this link. The new SPARK website is at this link, and features a quote from President Obama extolling science and the need to build things, not just consume them.

So far, the Spark site appears to be in its nascent stages. I checked out the user forums and they have 217 registered members but only a few posts -- fewer readers actually than Robot Stock News. But it is an interesting platform that could grow.

iRobot says its engineers have visited 50 classrooms in the past year giving robot demos. The idea is solid -- build a base of budding roboticists to help proselytize the industry. Apple has long tapped the willingness of youth to try something different, and iRobot is smart to do the same with robotics, which remains a foreign concept to most people, especially the older set.

iRobot's "Create" product could conceivably get some incremental sales out of this, but this is more about long-term grassroots PR than making money up-front.

BTW, here's an idea for iRobot's marketing people: team up with the owners of the Frogger video game to make a "Roomba Frogger" video game for the iPhone. Sell it for FREE, and have ads that take people to iRobot's site to see the various robotic products. Or team up with Google and partner on a "Droid" commercial.

Just sayin'

Tags: iRobot, robotics, education

CPSC backs Zhu Zhu, Good Guide admits goof

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is backing claims by the makers of the Zhu Zhu robotic hamsters that they comply with safety standards and don't have excess levels of the chemical antimony, The Washington Post reports. Some 6 million of the pets have sold this season! Good Guide, the web site that claimed the robots were out of compliance, acknowledged in a web update that they used a surface test that should not have been compared to the federal standards and said they regretted the error.

Score one for Mr. Squiggles.

Tags: Zhu Zhu

IRBT keeps soaring, how high will it go? (Latest iRobot Top 10)

iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ:IRBT) has now more than doubled in the past year, jumping more than $1 a share Friday alone to bust through yet another 52-week high. iRobot is now officially a HOT stock and has a story to go with it. Here are the high points:

1. iRobot has a blowout new product called the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV) that the Army has announced plans to acquire for EVERY brigade combat team, potentially 10,000 to 20,000 robots at $70K plus per copy over a number of years. CEO Colin Angle projected ramping up SUGV production to 4,000 units a year in 2013 in a presentation last week.
2. The SUGV and iRobot's existing PackBot products are ideal for Afghanistan, where we are ramping up our forces, because they are lightweight and man-packable, unlike many competing products, and can carry a very broad array of add-ons, from sniper detection to bomb-sniffing. The $30 billion war supplemental expected this spring could include an extra chunk of change for iRobot.
3. Roomba sales are booming in the overseas market, particularly in Europe, but soon to be expanded to South America. They have shrunk significantly in the United States, but that should rebound when the economy starts growing in earnest by Christmas 2010.
4. New Roomba models are imminent. HSN has the first new model featuring "Aero Vac" technology; iRobot plans to roll out the improved Roomba technology across its line in early 2010. That could prompt a wave of upgrades as well as happier customers.
5. iRobot has cut costs by millions this year and has grown cash flow dramatically despite the downturn in the economy with a new, more bottom-line focused management team.
6. ZERO debt. Did I mention ZERO debt?
7. Takeover opportunities abound. iRobot's properties, particularly its SUGV product, should be worth tons to any number of major defense contractors, provided that Angle is willing to sell. A sale would be far easier given that the other two founders, Helen Greiner (now heading DroidWorks) and Rodney Brooks (Heartland Robotics), have long since moved on to more entrepreneurial pastures and would probably be eager for a cash-out payday at the right price. (iRobot's bylaws are very hostile to hostile takeovers, but an amicable takeover is another matter entirely. Brooks, Greiner and Angle together own a very large chunk of iRobot stock.) iRobot also has a growing patent portfolio, and its Roomba line could be valuable to any number of consumer products companies.
8. New health care robot division is headed by a proven entrepreneur and has significant potential if they can develop the right product.
9. There is a HUGE opportunity for iRobot to use its marketing power and proven products to move into retail, a la Apple, where they can show off their products in person. When it comes to seeing a brand new piece of technology, particularly a robot, there is no substitute for an in-person demo. iRobot appears to be finally getting the message, setting up a mall kiosk last year, two this year, and plans to roll out substantially more next Christmas if the stores are a success. (I've been advocating for iRobot stores since 2007.)
10. There are still huge markets where iRobot has the potential to introduce game-changing robots. An affordable robotic lawnmower for the masses. Industrial cleaning. Shower cleaning. Toilet cleaning. Window washing. Laundry folding/ironing. Cooking. (How cool would a cooking robot be?)

Tags: iRobot, robot

Zhu Zhu Pet Hamsters Have Unsafe Levels of Chemical, Consumer Site Says

CNN reports that the consumer site GoodGuide has tested the Mister Squiggles Zhu Zhu hamster and found that it exceeded new federal standards for levels of the toxic chemical antimony.

OUCH!

Cepia, the maker of Zhu Zhu, says their own tests performed by an independent company show the products are safe.

Key Quote:

"We are contacting the Good Guide people at this moment to share with them all of our Mr. Squiggles and Zhu Zhu Pet testing data so we can get to the bottom of how their report was founded,” Russ Hornsby said. "We want to assure everyone already enjoying Mr. Squiggles or other Zhu Zhu Pets, and those planning to purchase Mr. Squiggles or another Zhu Zhu Pet this holiday season, that the toy is 100 percent safe and in compliance with all U.S. and European toy safety standards. I have been in the toy industry for more than 35 years, and being a father of children myself, I would never allow any substandard or unsafe product to hit the shelves."

But the damage could be done. Looks like the latest toy robot fad might be over even before it was really getting started. Those middlemen who bought up thousands in hopes of capitalizing on desperate parents at a premium are probably freaking out. Even if the GoodGuide report is accurate, it could be just one bad batch, but that's all it takes. And when you are using contract manufacturers that you do not directly control, you can be up a creek if they or a subcontractor or a sub-subcontractor decide to cut corners to make a buck and the results can be disastrous. (Remember the Chinese milk scandal.) But that's the reality of today's manufacturing processes. Nobody produces their own stuff any more, and everybody makes their stuff in China. Can only hope that stories like this (and the lead toy fiasco) will prompt the Chinese to continually improve their own policing and testing policies.

All of this also points out the risks of getting into the toy business, which some have suggested iRobot do. (iRobot's previous effort at a robotic baby created exceptionally creepy results and failed to be a commercial success.) I'm not saying robot toys aren't worth considering, but you have to have *ALL* your ducks in a row, and if you have a dud, you end up with a lot of worthless plastic sitting in your inventory. I'm convinced iRobot has made a strategic decision not to go to toys, or else it would have bought Ugobe's assets on the cheap when the Pleo maker failed. Not gonna happen.

Tags: Zhu Zhu

The Robot Report: Comprehensive new robotics site

Frank Tobe, the publisher of the new site The Robot Report, is assembling a comprehensive database of robotics companies worldwide and has a site chock-full of interesting tidbits. Frank has also developed a robotic stock index called Robo-Stox. Definitely worth a look!

Here's a cool YouTube video full of fascinating robots from his recent trip to the iRex2009 robotics expo in Tokyo (I noted in particular the industrial cleaning robots from Subaru and an undersea torpedo-like robot):


Tags: robotics, robot

Colin Angle Forecasts 4,000 PackBots/SUGVs a year by 2013, plans "nonlethal" armed robots

iRobot CEO Colin Angle forecast military robot sales of 4,000 a year in 2013, assuming that the SUGV (Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle) is ramped up as expected by the military, in a presentation yesterday. iRobot stock (NASDAQ:IRBT) soared to a 52-week high on the news, nearly hitting $15 a share. That's more than double its all-time low of about $7 last year, but still $9 away from the company's IPO price of $24 a share.

The SUGV (pictured) is the single biggest driver of the company's growth, from its current pace of 1,000+ robots a year, and all systems seem to be a go, although we are still waiting for the really big orders to roll in and waiting to get a firmer sense of how much SUGV will cost per unit. (A similar robot, the PackBot with FasTac Kit, costs about $70,000 a copy, although that low price came as a result of an illegitimate competitor who used iRobot technology in their bid; the contract award was subsequently awarded to iRobot, and that company's assets were transferred to iRobot, but without additional financial consideration for the faulty competition). While there are other companies vying for a piece of the SUGV business, iRobot has had a huge head start and already is delivering product.

Given that Afghanistan is heating up, I would be surprised if the Army doesn't move quickly on more orders, especially since the SUGV is better suited to Afghanistan than perhaps any other robot, and better even than Iraq because of it's abilities handling rough terrain/caves, etc. relative to larger, more cumbersome robots that are not man-packable.

Angle's presentation slides included a number of interesting future products, some of which we have noted here previously, including a future iRobot unmanned patrol boat (see the iRobot patrol boat in this video), an armed but "nonlethal" variant of its PackBot line (there is a small pic of what looks like a gun on the PackBot), and a firefighting version of its iRobot Warrior product (which has been in the works since as least 2007).
iRobot has partnered in the past with Taser (check out this devastating video from a while back) for nonlethal firepower, and with MetalStorm for both nonlethal rubber-bullet weaponry on up to grenade launchers (pictured). But given that the company roadmap now focuses on "nonlethal" means of firepower, it's clear the company (and the Army) is still worried about giving lethal firepower to the robot, even though the trigger would still have to be pulled by a soldier. This makes sense from a PR perspective -- all of robotics could be set back with just one friendly fire incident -- but there is a clear double standard between robotic drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAVs) which come equipped with missiles that can result in massive collateral damage and are controlled by a technician sitting in a dark room in Florida, and a ground robot. Because of today's restrictions, a soldier on the ground could put a bad guy in his sights from a safe, remote location and still not be able to take him out because of HQ's concerns about PR. Basically, the situation now is better than it was before: Soldier tosses PackBot/SUGV into house, checks on camera to see if bad guys are inside. But if there ARE bad guys inside, soldier still has to go in, risking himself and his buddies, instead of neutralizing the enemy remotely. My guess is this is going to change, the question is when. There also are the longstanding concerns about iRobot's brand strategy, given that it's cute and cuddly Roomba image does not jive with having ever more sophisticated warbots. Go to any other military contractors' home page, and they have videos and pictures of stuff shooting other stuff. iRobot? Not so much.

At any rate, iRobot appears on the cusp of passing a critical milestone in its development, assuming that it gets the vast bulk of the SUGV business. At some point, I wouldn't be surprised if Boeing or another big contractor made a play for iRobot's military businesses, now that it is starting to churn up real money. And in the hands of one of the big boys, the technology could be more rapidly developed and spread across a much broader array of products. iRobot itself could then focus its attention on its remaining businesses -- the home robot business as well as the emerging health care robot division.

Hat tip, byronangel

Tags: iRobot, robot, Army, SUGV, robotics, stocks