Colin Angle

IRobot Corporation is an American technology company that designs and builds consumer robots.¹

Born 1967.¹

About

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$1.7 billion, announced in August 2022, collapsed in January 2024 amid antitrust scrutiny by the European Commission. The company filed for bankruptcy in December 2025 and was acquired by Chinese manufacturer Shenzhen Picea Robotics (Picea), their primary designer for their new line of robots.

From Wikipedia’s article on Colin Angle, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.²

Companies

iRobotFounder⁸

Early life and education

Date not recordedMassachusetts Institute of Technology³

Career

Occupation: roboticist, business executive.⁵

Date not recordedFounded iRobot⁴

Personal life

CitizenshipUnited States⁶

Current home robots

Roomba

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 robot returns 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.

In 2015, iRobot released an updated Roomba called the Roomba 980, with a camera that 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, increasing suction when the Roomba detects itself on carpets or rugs. This was also one of the first Roombas to include Wi-Fi connectivity with app control.

In 2018, iRobot released the Roomba i7 and i7+, marking new advancements in their smart mapping with their VSLAM-enabled Smart Imprint mapping (also called iAdapt 3.0). Their robots could now save multiple floor plans, and maps made by Roomba were stored in the cloud instead of being deleted every cleaning run. The release also introduced iRobot’s Automatic Dirt Disposal system, which emptied the robot’s dust bin every cleaning run. A year later, the Roomba S9+ was released, further improving those features with higher suction power and a D shape, a first for iRobot’s Roombas.

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, which includes mopping capabilities. The robot is able to differentiate between hardwood floor and carpet, and it lifts its mop to the top of the robot when transitioning to carpet.

Braava

Braava is iRobot's floor mopping robot, designed to work on 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.

The design was known as the Mint until 2013. It was developed by Evolution Robotics, which was acquired by iRobot in 2012.

Create

Create is a hobby robot, released in 2007. Create offers users the possibility of changing or adapting the robot's functions through experimentation with the basic elements of robotics as well as by adding sensors, grippers, wireless connections, computers, or other hardware.

Root

Root is an educational robot designed for use by children learning how to code. It is programmed through a tablet or smartphone. iRobot acquired Root Robotics in 2019. In 2024, the Root product line was acquired by SAM Labs.

From Wikipedia’s article on Colin Angle (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Legal issues and controversies

Training data on Facebook

Images captured by development versions of the Roomba J7, including a photo of a woman sitting on a toilet, were posted to social media in 2020. iRobot had shared approximately 2 million images with Scale AI, a company that contracts gig workers to label data for machine learning. Workers in Venezuela posted at least 15 images to private Facebook and Discord groups, violating their non-disclosure agreements. Some testers said they felt misled, as they had not expected their images to be viewed by humans or shared with overseas contractors. iRobot terminated its relationship with Scale AI following the incident.

Unregulated use of reserved frequency

iRobot has been criticized for attempting unregulated use of 6240-6740 MHz band, and asking for an FCC exemption to do so. This band is for use for the lawn mowing robot without needing to use an electronic fence as a boundary marker, instead by using radio beacons. The band falls into a band reserved for radio astronomy use, thus interfering with radio telescope observations of methanol's 6.66852 GHz emissions.