iRobot: Ready to Clean Up

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Where are the opportunities to use robots to tackle new kinds of distasteful tasks, like you've done with vacuuming and mopping?

Vacuuming has been a success. Our Scooba [mopping robot] and Looj [gutter-cleaning robot] help with maintenance tasks that suffer from neglect. Our ConnectR robot, which we'll test next year, [will] give you some additional opportunities to have positive experiences, like spending more time with your family.

While we haven't announced any new products and won't be announcing anything for quite some time, for everything from raking leaves to shoveling snow to mowing lawns or washing windows, robots would be doing us all a service if they could take on some of that burden. In the game of robots you're always fighting against the cost of hiring someone to do that task for you. There are upper bounds on what these devices can cost.

You've sued a competitor, Robotic FX, for misappropriating trade secrets. Its founder, Jameel Ahed, used to work for you. Bring us up to speed on where things stand with the suit.

We brought a suit against this former employee who stole trade secrets and infringed on our patents. The preliminary injunction was given by a judge in light of the facts of that case; it's given when the judge feels it is highly likely the outcome of the trial would be in favor of the prosecution. And the injunctive relief is a very strong statement by the judge that she felt there was very strong evidence that trade secrets were misappropriated and used. The injunction prohibits Mr. Ahed and Robotic FX from using those trade secrets in the sale of products. This is a great intermediate outcome.

What do you think of Pleo, the robotic dinosaur from startup Ugobe that just hit the market? It's being billed as quite an advance in robotic toys.

A robot pet that can provide some companionship and be a little artificial life form people can connect with is a great idea. Furby [the '90s hit toy designed by Ugobe founder Caleb Chung] sold 40 million units, and at least half of them weren't sold to children. There's certainly a need or desire for some device in people's lives they can interact with. And perhaps taking care of a pet is too much of a challenge or not allowed. It's this human need of making people feel less lonely. Pleo's exceptionally well done, but it's priced around $350, so it's not a cheap device. It will be interesting to see how big sales are; is it going to be a market of thousands, or hundreds of thousands? That remains to be seen. But it's a technological marvel, and from everything I've seen, pulls at your heartstrings.