iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ: IRBT) announced that it has achieved an industry milestone in the home robot market. The company, which was founded twenty years ago, launched its iRobot Roomba Vacuum Cleaning Robot in 2002. Since then, iRobot has sold more than five million home robots, making its products among the best-selling consumer robots in history.
“This achievement represents a huge milestone for iRobot and for the robotics industry as a whole,” said Colin Angle, chairman and chief executive officer of iRobot. “We set out to create practical robots that help people accomplish tasks they don’t like to do, and in many cases, don’t have time to do. With over five million home robots sold, we have seen a widespread acceptance of this technology. This further fuels our drive to innovate and provide solutions that make a difference in people’s lives.”
The award-winning iRobot Roomba has established itself as a proven tool in maintaining a clean home and leads the charge as the first truly practical and affordable home robot. Over the course of many years, the company has developed advanced robotic technologies that have put Roomba at the top of the growing home robot market.
- Roomba makes multiple passes over the same area, much like one would do while using a standard vacuum cleaner, ensuring complete coverage as it lifts an amazing amount of debris from carpets and hard floors.
- Roomba identifies furniture and other obstacles, slows its approach and then lightly and gently touches the obstacle with its bumper before changing direction. This allows Roomba to clean right up to and along an obstacle.
- Roomba’s navigation system, light-touch bumper and low-profile allow it to continue past bed skirts and under couches with soft skirts, cleaning hard to reach places that are often ignored.
- Roomba detects dirtier areas and responds by increasing vacuuming intensity and cleaning pattern to ensure deeper, concentrated cleaning in that area.
- Roomba automatically adjusts from hard floors to carpet and avoids stairs and drop-offs.
- Specially-designed technology and suspension allow Roomba to maneuver over cords and effectively extract itself from rug fringe and tassels.
- With its spinning side brush, Roomba is adept at cleaning corners and along edges.
- Roomba’s round shape prevents it from getting stuck in corners or between other obstacles commonly found in people’s homes.
- Roomba can be set to clean on a schedule and will automatically return to its Home Base when finished cleaning or when its battery is running low.
- There are several Roomba models to choose from. Pricing for the Roomba 400 Series begins at $129.99. The Roomba 500 Series, incorporating iRobot’s most advanced coverage and cleaning technology, begins at $279.99.
iRobot’s consumer robots have revolutionized the way people clean – both inside and outside the home. iRobot’s acclaimed line of home robots also includes:
- iRobot Scooba® Floor Washing Robot
- Robot Dirt Dog® Shop Sweeping Robot
- iRobot Looj® Gutter Cleaning Robot
- iRobot Verro® Pool Cleaning Robot
About iRobot Corp.
iRobot designs and builds robots that make a difference. The company’s home robots help people find smarter ways to clean, and its government and industrial robots help protect those in harm’s way. iRobot’s consumer and military robots feature iRobot AWARE® robot intelligence systems, proprietary technology incorporating advanced concepts in navigation, mobility, manipulation and artificial intelligence. For more information about iRobot, please visit http://www.irobot.com.
Contact
Elise Caffrey
Investor Relations
iRobot Corp.
P: (781) 430-3003
E:
Nancy Smith
Media Relations
iRobot Corp.
P: (781) 430-3323
E:
I’ve wanted one of these for a while. I’ve got mostly hardwood floors with a few scattered area rugs, a Siberian Husky, an Australian Shepherd, a Welsh Corgi, a Himalayan cat and a regular tortoiseshell cat, all of whom shed copious amounts. In addition, I’m a horseshoer by trade, so I bring in a fair amount of horsehair on my clothes on a daily basis. We have to sweep and vacuum literally every day in order to keep something resembling sanity and order, and I’d love to have one of these to help. I’m saving up my pennies now.
I did have a few questions about them, though. How long is their usable life? How much maintenance do they need? The price tag is quite reasonable when compared with a decent vacuum cleaner, but my vacuum cleaners usually last me about five years. If I’ll have to replace the iRobot every two years, all of a sudden it’s a touch more expensive. A horse trainer friend of mine has had hers for three years and says that she has a problem with the turning mechanism, where it senses an object and turns around it. She’s broken it down completely, cleaned everything and the problem still persists. She says that she takes really good care of hers, and I have heard of other people who’ve only had them last two years.
I’m fascinated by the more technical aspects of the iRobot. Proximity sensing tech? How utterly wondrous. I’m a big science fiction fan, and it seems that the longer I live, the more life comes to resemble some aspects of the science fiction I read when I was a kid. In that time, though, I’ve learned that cutting edge tech tends to have a lot of bugs, breaks down frequently and is often expensive to repair.