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Robots make themselves at home

By Staff , CNET News.com on August 16, 2009 

 

Summary

Find out the latest in home-cleaning technology and more

Events

IBM Technology Conference & Expo 2012
May 23, 2012

Convention Centre B2 Room at 22nd Floor, Centara Grand @ Central World, 999/99 Rama I Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330

Echelon 2012
June 11 and 12, 2012

University Cultural Centre, National University of Singapore

Startup Asia Jakarta 2012
June 7 and 8, 2012

12th Floor, Annex Building, Wisma Nusantara Complex, Jl. M.H. Thamrin No. 59 Jakarta 10350, Indonesia

MMA Forum Singapore
April 23-25, 2012

Grand Hyatt Singapore

Submit
In the Will Smith movie "I, Robot", the robots are humanoid and menacing. In the real world of you and me and the company iRobot, the machines are much more...ordinary.

The Roomba 560 vacuum cleaner from iRobot, seen here, is typical of commercial robots at the dawn of the 21st century--it's a bit of a drudge. But that's also why the company has sold more than 3 million of the autonomous floor-cleaning bots, the first of which appeared in 2002; they've got a job to do, and they do it well.

And you can expect a lot more chore-minded robots moving in to homes and workplaces in the not-too-distant (and not-so-sci-fi) future, as prices come down and capabilities go up. (The Roomba 650 sells for US$380.) NextGen Research has estimated that the worldwide market for consumer-oriented service robots will hit US$15 billion by 2015. Says Paolo Pirjanian, CEO of software maker Evolution Robotics: "We want floor care to be the same as the sprinkler system for the lawn--set it up once, move on, forget about it."

Photo by iRobot
Credit: Jonathan Skillings

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