roomba

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

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...

10 August 2016, by Adeline Chanseau

Dyson robotic vacuums go on sale in Japan

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...

24 October 2015, by Frank Tobe

Residential robotic vacuum cleaner market poised for stellar growth

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 ...

28 May 2015, by Vipassa Kakroo

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

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 ...

20 November 2014, by Frank Tobe

Recent robotic vacuum launches change industry from niche to mainstream

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...

10 September 2014, by Frank Tobe

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

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...

05 September 2014, by Hallie Siegel

Rapid robot prototyping with ROS

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...

19 October 2012, by David Pietrocola