Roomba wins showdown with Samsung vacuum bot

CNET UK put the Roomba 560 and the latest vacuum robot from Samsung through their paces. Roomba won the competition, although the reviewer said it was a bit noisier and didn't have Samsung's mapping technology. Both failed a chocolate cleaning test -- the Roomba's sensors apparently got dirty, while the Samsung stopped cleaning even though plenty of chocolate powder remained to be clean -- FAIL. The Samsung also got tangled on cords and clothes, which the Roomba avoided with aplomb. Verdict: Specs aren't everything.

• Roomba vs NaviBot
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• CNET UK

Thanks, atyurin

Tags: iRobot, Roomba

iRobot Stock Stays Strong

iRobot's stock has had another surge of momentum of late amid a string of positive news stories. There was a nice burst of publicity for its Seaglider program after the company announced that its underwater robots are monitoring undersea oil in the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe. And another shot in the arm when the company rolled out a weaponized version of its iRobot Warrior intended for clearing mine fields. IRBT took a hit along with the market over the European/Greek debt crisis, which makes a certain amount of sense given that overseas sales, to Europe in particular, are a big part of iRobot's growth story. But that situation appears to have stabilized somewhat. It will be interesting to see if the company turns the oil spill news into a serious effort to developing drilling/oil spill robots -- the company had developed an oil-related product a number of years ago before it turned public -- and to see if the company can develop a genuinely useful eldercare robot where many others have failed. On the oil front, given the toxicity of the oil to cleanup crews, wouldn't it be cool to develop robotic seaskimmers? iRobot has already had plans for robotic patrol boats for the Navy, but this would seem to fit in with the company's mantra of using robots for dull, dirty and dangerous jobs. Maybe the sense is that big oil spills only happen every so often, but my guess is that oil companies are going to be forced to invest billions in better spill-response technologies. A fleet of robot skimmers could easily fit into that paradigm.

In the meantime, we're still waiting on the Neato Robotics XV-11 to ship. The thing was touted as a Roomba Killer but has been delayed at least 6 months for unknown reasons.

Tags: iRobot, robot, Roomba