Originally published July 20 2005
Teacher-student duo leads the way for more robots
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A then-student at MIT, Colin Angle met Professor Rodney Brooks and began working on a robotics project that turned into a profitable venture. After selling more than 1.2 million Roomba robots, the team is now working on military robots and more of the housecleaning variety.
While a student at MIT, Colin Angle passed by a lab managed by Professor Rodney Brooks.
The project helped Brooks get tenure and Angle into grad school.
But rather than go to grad school, Angle started a company with Brooks.
They later linked up with Helen Grenier, and their efforts became iRobot, one of the early standouts in what appears to be a growing market for autonomous robots.
The company has shipped 1.2 million Roombas, a robotic vacuum cleaner that sells for around $300.
iRobot has also created a military robot called the PackBot and is crafting a reconnaissance vehicle with mower king John Deere.
Angle, the company's CEO, met recently with News.com to demonstrate the next version of the Roomba and talk about the future of the robotics market.
If you view the practical robot market--that is, robots that are not humanoid or robots created for the sake of it--there may be five or six companies making lawn mowers.
There are a lot of industry analysts that are all very bullish on where it's going.
I know a bunch of venture funds that have money set aside for robots and are looking for good companies.
You're going to see some other good management teams being formed around...robotics.
There are a variety of different add-ons for the PackBot.
How much of your revenue comes from consumers, and how much comes from military/corporate contracts?
We've been told that we've saved over a hundred lives in Iraq, and we have substantial orders to yet fulfill in getting equipment over there, and there is feedback coming about how we can add functionalities to the robots.
We are also part of a very substantial program called Future Combat Systems.
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