roomba

Robot companions are coming into our homes — how human should they be?

Adeline Chanseau 10 Aug 2016

What would your ideal robot be like? One that can change nappies and tell bedtime stories to your child? Perhaps you’d prefer a butler that can polish silver and mix the perfect cocktail? Or maybe y...

Dyson robotic vacuums go on sale in Japan

Frank Tobe 24 Oct 2015

After a six-month delay to hone the robot for Japanese homes, and a year after the original launch announcement, the Dyson 360 Eye robotic vacuum cleaner has finally gone on sale in stores all over Ja...

Residential robotic vacuum cleaner market poised for stellar growth

Vipassa Kakroo 28 May 2015

Although robotic vacuum cleaners have been on the market for over a decade now, it is only recently that they have started to become pervasive. Innovations in technology have allowed manufacturers to ...

Over 70,000 robotic vacuum cleaners sold on a single day

Frank Tobe 20 Nov 2014

Just last month Rod Brooks chided me that robotic vacuum cleaners were already mainstream in response to what I had written: that they had just recently moved from niche to mainstream partly because ...

Recent robotic vacuum launches change industry from niche to mainstream

Frank Tobe 10 Sep 2014

Recent robotic vacuum cleaner product launches by Dyson and Samsung have transformed what once was a niche market of early adopters and robot enthusiasts into a marketplace of serious consumer produc...

Housework 2.0: The battle of the robot vacuum cleaners begins!

Hallie Siegel 05 Sep 2014

The public may be expecting to see robot cyborgs battle it out in distant galaxies, but back here on earth the battle of the robots is taking on a distinctively quotidian reality. The double announcem...

Rapid robot prototyping with ROS

David Pietrocola 19 Oct 2012

Open-source software is making it easier to reuse algorithms and allow engineers and researchers to focus on their problems of interest instead of reinventing the wheel for each project. Not an expert...