A robot to search for survivors: the origin of the 'Roomba' that vacuums your house
The iRobot company was born with the launch of automatons for space exploration and defense
On September 11, 2001, a few minutes after both planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City, the doors of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) warehouse opened. Several vans emerged. Inside were the PackBots, all-terrain robots designed to help rescue teams find survivors among the rubble. They were still in the development phase, but that day, scientists decided to put them to the test. They were very small and compact, moved at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour, could withstand all types of weather conditions, and were equipped with a radio system, cameras, and sensors to interact with their surroundings. They were crowned by a highly versatile articulated arm that could remove small obstacles, explore narrow spaces, or place objects in hard-to-reach places. Behind the widget was iRobot, the company that, 25 years later, is a successful seller of self-vacuum robots in homes around the world.
The company's founding partners were Rodney Brooks, Helen Greiner, and Colin Angle, three scientists who had become friends in the artificial intelligence laboratories at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1990, they decided to found iRobot. A year later, they introduced Genghis, a robot designed for space exploration. In 1996, they launched Ariel, a robotic crab capable of detecting and removing mines at sea in surfing areas. In 1998, they debuted the first PackBot, which took part in the World Trade Center attacks. It was also deployed in Afghanistan and was used in the Fukushima nuclear disaster. It was in 2002 that iRobot decided to add the civilian sector to its catalog. It did so with the first Roomba, the robot vacuum cleaner for the home. Just two years later, it had already sold one million units, mainly in the United States. A year later, the company went public on the Nasdaq.
Robots to clean everything
Seeing the success of its first model, iRobot focused its efforts on domestic robots. In 2005, it launched Scooba, a model for mopping floors; in 2006, Dirt Dog, for vacuuming rougher surfaces; and in 2007, Looj and Verro, for cleaning gutters on roofs and swimming pools, respectively. The models evolved until 2013. That year, the company had already sold 10 million domestic robots and more than 5,000 in the defense and security sector. To strengthen its leadership, it spent $74 million to acquire the California-based company Evolution Robotics, a computer vision specialist who had launched Mint, a robotic mop similar to iRobot's products. In February 2016, just as the company announced it had installed 20 million devices in homes worldwide, it sold the military branch of the business to Arlington Capital Partners.
In November 2021, iRobot took out its checkbook to buy Aeris Cleantec, a company specializing in air purifiers, and launched its own devices within the year. One of the company's most high-profile episodes came recently. On August 5, 2022, Amazon announced its intention to acquire iRobot for $1.7 billion. However, the US Federal Trade Commission was skeptical: it was concerned about Amazon's dominance and the privacy of user data, especially in the case of home floor plans. In January 2024, Amazon and iRobot backed down, also after running into opposition from European Union antitrust regulators.
Today, the company has an annual turnover of $891 million. "As they were the first to enter the market, they had enough time to establish themselves well in the minds of consumers," analyzes Neus Soler, a marketing expert at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). "They have achieved the greatest success possible in the field of branding: having their brand name used as a generic name when referring to robot vacuum cleaners, regardless of the brand," she concludes.