We have a bit of history, iRobot and I, or at least Roomba, the first commercially viable consumer robot vacuum cleaner, and I have a history. When I heard that iRobot was so bad it could go bankrupt, I felt a wave of sadness.
Perhaps this feeling was heightened by the fact that the news broke just as he was finishing Joseph L. Jones’s new book. Dance with Roomba. Jones, an early iRobot employee and the original engineer behind the Roomba (an MIT researcher, the robot vacuum was essentially the brainchild of Jones and a colleague).
start over
23 years ago I worked at… computer magazine when I started talking to a trio of researchers from MIT’s Media Lab: Rodney Brooks, Helen Greiner, and Colin Angle. Although I don’t remember the details, I think it was my previous passion for robots that brought me to them and their new company, iRobot. Brooks, in particular, was a genius who understood that a behavior-based approach to robot programming could lead to long-term success. The team built iRobot (although it was called IS Robotics at the time), and Jones soon joined.
When I met her, iRobot had already failed spectacularly: my real baby (made in collaboration with Hasbro). It was expensive ($98) and perhaps a bit strange, perhaps the consumers first encounter with uncanny valley.
iRobot soon focused all of its efforts on the robot vacuum project, which would then span the next two years of its original lifespan. The company’s other area of activity, to which Greiner devoted much of his time, was military robots such as: package robotthat can be thrown through walls, windows and tunnels to do heavy, dirty work that might otherwise injure people’s soft parts.
Jones’ book is full of small details about the development of robotic vacuum cleaners. When I read it, I often felt like I was in an engineering, design and development laboratory as Jones and his colleagues worked on some very difficult, if prosaic, problems for the average analog vacuum.
For example, I was fascinated to learn that the Roomba didn’t even have a vacuum for much of its development; she was a clever sweeper. Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot, insisted on adding a bottom vacuum and running it first when you turn on the Roomba.
It worked and we could afford it.
When I saw the first Roomba in late 2002, it was already fully developed; a roughly 3-inch disc with a distinctive gray bumper and a strange way to clean an entire floor or carpet. Jones describes how the team developed the cleaning process and the challenges of a robot that only knows its task (cleaning) but not its location. When Roomba was launched, sensor technology was still in its infancy. There are now cameras and sensors that can map not just a room, but an entire house.
I remember filming a segment on local television with a Roomba running high above the table behind me. The fact that it never fell off the edge was another achievement, which Jones said was due not only to the wheels’ ability to detect when they are no longer touching the ground based on their height, but also to additional backup sensors to detect tension changes. In other words, the little robot of the first generation was even built with redundancies.
And did I mention it’s only $199? Jones writes about all the efforts iRobot makes to keep the number of components and motors low to reduce costs. This is something robot vacuum cleaner Electrolux, which launched the Roomba with the Trilobite, apparently didn’t take into account when it priced its consumer vacuum cleaner at $1,500.
Roomba wasn’t just cool and new; It was effective. I remember being shocked when he dumped Cheerios on the floor of my office, and even more shocked when I took out the little trash can for the first time to find it full of trash.
iRobot has sold tens of millions of Roombas, many of which cost more than $500. But the company also created many competitors and imitators, some of which were acquired by iRobot, such as Evolution Robotics (which developed an excellent tracking system).
Some companies sold cheaper robots that seemed to do the same thing as the Roomba, and eventually the Innovator was just part of the robot vacuum package.
In recent years, the company has struggled to compete and differentiate itself. When we were dazzled at CES 2025 by a robot vacuum with a retractable arm to pick up and move obstacles, there was no sign of iRobot. Instead, the robot vacuum cleaner Roborock is now making major changes in cleaning automation.
Perhaps iRobot’s last chance to return to its former glory was a possible acquisition by Amazon, which went bankrupt a few years ago. CEO Colin Angle soon left.
I can’t clean up this mess
Now the company has made contact a pending filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Explanation of the risks arising if the grace period extension is not granted: “If this exemption is not extended after the applicable period has expired, we will be bankrupt. Our financial condition continues to deteriorate and we may not be able to obtain the additional funds we need to continue our operations.
I don’t know what will happen to iRobot, but I think it’s worth considering that its eventual demise means more than just the demise of another big tech company.
Roomba played a drinking game with Jimmy Fallon
Our use of automated cleaning, from robotic vacuum cleaners and mops to potential humanoid home robots, depends largely on the efforts and risks of a small group of scientists, technicians, and engineers. People like Joseph L. Jones, who started dreaming of a robotic vacuum cleaner years before the first consumer imagined a pizza robot that would do the dirty work for him. As Jones notes in his book, it required good principles, people, luck and sometimes a lack of skills.
Roomba has become part of our culture (here it is). parodied on SNL) and is still part of the lives of millions of consumers, but it is no longer the robotic vacuum cleaner it once was. The store exploded in variety of options and prices, and competitors caught up and eventually surpassed it.
Let’s toast iRobot and your Roomba. His brightest days may be behind him, but at least he left a clear mark on his path.
