Colin Angle

iRobot Corporation is an American technology company that designs and builds consumer robots.

It was founded in 1990 by three members of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab, who designed robots for space exploration and military defense.

The company's products include a range of autonomous home vacuum cleaners (Roomba), floor moppers (Braava), and other autonomous cleaning devices.

A planned takeover deal by Amazon.com for US$1.7billion, announced in August 2022, collapsed in January 2024 amid antitrust scrutiny by the European Commission.

iRobot was founded in 1990 by Rodney Brooks, Colin Angle, and Helen Greiner after working in MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab.

In 1998, the company received a DARPA research contract which led to the development of the PackBot.

In September 2002, iRobot unveiled its home robots flagship, the Roomba, which went on to sell a million units by 2004.

Roomba is an automated vacuum cleaning robot first released in 2002.

Roomba is powered by a rechargeable battery, and many models are available with a docking station to which the Roomba should return to recharge at the end of its cleaning cycle.

They work in conjunction with accessories that use both IR and RF.

The company intentionally allows customers to hack the robot because they want people to experiment and improve the product.

The API for the serial has been published and the serial port made easily accessible to make modifications easy to perform.

iRobot began being traded on the NASDAQ in November 2005, under ticker symbol IRBT.

On September 17, 2012, iRobot announced that it had acquired Evolution Robotics, manufacturer of automated floor mopper Mint.

In addition to deployment as bomb-disposal units with the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan, PackBots have been used to gather data in dangerous conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster site, and an iRobot Seaglider detected underwater pools of oil after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

It was developed by Evolution Robotics, which was acquired by iRobot in 2012.

The design was known as the Mint until 2013.

In 2015, iRobot released an updated Roomba called the Roomba 980, with a camera that maps out a room of its objects.

The camera uses VSlam technology to map out a room and the objects in the room to clean the entire floor of a home.

The Roomba 980 also includes Carpet boost where the suction is turned up when the Roomba sensor detects itself on carpets or rugs.

This was also one of the first Roombas to include Wi-FI connectivity with app control.

In May 2022, iRobot announced the new operating system and software platform for its Roomba vacuum cleaners, iRobot OS.

The company stated the move from iRobot genius to iRobot OS will aid in giving their products a deeper understanding of the user’s households and the users habits, in addition to voice commands and greater objected identification.

In October 2022, iRobot released the Roomba Combo, a Roomba j7+ that includes mopping capabilities.

The robot is able to differentiate between hardwood floor and carpet; when it moves to carpet it lifts its mop to the top of the robot.

Braava is iRobot's Floor Mopping Robot, designed to work on all hard-surface floors.

Braava uses disposable or microfiber cleaning cloths for damp and/or dry cleaning.

The 380t model comes with a Channel 4 NorthStar Navigation Cube, which is set on a high surface and directs the robot around the area it cleans.

In February 2016, iRobot announced that it would sell its military robotics business to Arlington Capital Partners, in order to focus more on the consumer market.

In November 2021, iRobot announced that it had acquired Aeris Cleantec AG, a Swiss air purifier manufacturer.

iRobot began selling Aeris-designed air purifiers through its own brand in 2022.

iRobot has sold more than 30 million home robots, and has deployed more than 5,000 defense & security robots, as of 2020.

On August 5, 2022, Amazon announced its intent to acquire iRobot in a deal worth US$1.7billion.

The deal was subject to federal approval from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other regulatory agencies.

In September 2022, the FTC requested more data from both companies, amid concerns about Amazon's market power and the privacy implications of it gaining information about consumer floorplans.

In June 2023, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority cleared the acquisition, saying it wouldn't lead to competition concerns in the country.

The European Commission launched a formal investigation into the proposed purchase in July 2023, citing that it would "allow Amazon to restrict competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners ('RVCs') and to strengthen its position as online marketplace provider."

In July 2023, Amazon reduced the offer price to $1.42billion after iRobot raised $200million in new debt to fund its daily operations.

In January 2024, Amazon and iRobot announced they would end their plans to merge in the face of opposition from EU antitrust regulators.

This resulted in Amazon paying iRobot a $94million reverse breakup fee, iRobot laying off 31percent of its employees, and CEO Colin Angle departing.