iRobot

After years of development, a new class of weapon that uses computer-controlled electronic ignition instead of primers to fire projectiles may be finally taking its much coveted place in the U.S. military inventory.

Brisbane, Australia-based Metal Storm has delivered a four-barrel weapon to the Naval Surface Warfare Center for testing that uses a small electrical current instead a conventional firing pin to deliver stacked rounds at an astounding rate.

How astounding? Try 1 million rounds per minute. That's the rate, by the way, not the volume; still, there's no way you want to be anywhere near the … Read more

The U.S. District Court of Massachusetts has granted iRobot its requested injunction against Robotic FX's Negotiator robot.

iRobot has alleged that the Negotiator robot built by Robotic FX infringes on two of its patents for the PackBot military robot.

iRobot is also suing Robotic FX's president, Jameel Ahed, as an individual. The company has accused the former iRobot employee of misappropriating confidential PackBot information he had access to while working at iRobot and using it in his company's Negotiator robot.

"The precise terms of the injunction follow in a separate Order, which shall be issued … Read more

The winner of iRobot's amateur robot-building contest is a multi-functional home robot designed by Danh Trinh of Towson, Md., the company announced Tuesday.

Trinh's winning robot, called simply "Personal Home Robot," is a teleoperational robot controlled from a laptop using Microsoft NetMeeting. It's capable of doing things like watering plants, controlling appliances, giving out reminders, dancing, and acting as a media center.

Trinh won $5,000 for his invention.

Personal Home Robot can suck up water through a straw into an onboard reservoir and then deposit the water at another location, such as a dog … Read more

Over at CNET News.com sister site TechRepublic, members raved about the iRobot Roomba's intelligent floor-cleaning prowess and expressed an interest in seeing one of these innovative gadgets cracked open. So Scott Wolf cracked open a Roomba purchased just for this purpose and learned a few things about how the device works.

See the photos of inside the iRobot Roomba

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--The Boston area has become a leading robotics hub, with a larger cluster of related companies than any other area in the U.S., according to a group of panelists assembled for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Enterprise Forum on Robotics Wednesday night.

The group, which consisted of executives from ABB Robotics, Brooks Automation, iRobot, Kiva Systems, North End Technologies and Vecna Technologies, said robotics companies are drawn to the university-rich New England area because of their unique need for highly educated employees from a multitude of disciplines.

While there are some great robots, the panelists said, they … Read more

iRobot will miss its third-quarter earnings goal, but overall 2007 financial expectations remain on track, the company said Wednesday.

The company expects to announce revenue of between $63 million and $64 million, resulting in a pretax loss of $1 million to $1.5 million in the third quarter, CEO Colin Angle said in a statement.

Part of the blame for the disappointing quarter was placed on delayed production of iRobot's new Roomba 500 vacuum series.

"... the production ramp up by our new contract manufacturer was slower than our initial targeted projections and consequently, revenue from delayed shipments will … Read more

The court case continues over the Negotiator military robot built by a former iRobot employee.

Jameel Ahed, who has garnered a $280 million contract to sell military robots to the government through his company Robotic FX, testified in a U.S. District Court of Massachusetts on Wednesday.

The Robotic FX president said that his robot was built from his own work while an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois, not trade secrets stolen from iRobot while he worked there, The Boston Globe has reported.

Neither iRobot nor Robotic FX were immediately available for comment.

iRobot has alleged in two separate suits that Robotic FX is infringing on U.S. Patent … Read more

It's not quite Rosie yet, Mr. Brooks, but we'll concede that the company you founded is a step closer to The Jetsons world of communications.

iRobot is expected to unveil this ConnectR communications robot, aka a physical avatar, at DigitalLife 2007 on Thursday.

The ConnectR for $499 is a robot you control on your behalf from anywhere in the world using a Web-based application. With a VoIP speakerphone and one-way video, it allows you to carry on a conversation as if you are right in the room. You can also control where it goes.

The video camera mounted … Read more

NEW YORK--Gadget-freak homeowners may never have to face the gunk of fall fallout ever again.

iRobot's CEO Colin Angle is expected to unveil two new robots at the DigitalLife 2007 consumer electronics show in New York on Thursday.

The Looj, which was accidentally leaked in August by the Federal Communications Commission Web site, is a remote-control robot that cleans out the gutters on the outside of a home.

The $99 robot's mobile base was based on that of iRobot's military PackBot, only on a much smaller scale. The robot can be slid into a gutter and then … Read more