Dancing with Roomba

Cracking the Robot Riddle and Building an Icon
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-88952-8
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Dancing with Roomba tells the unexpected story of the world’s favorite robot.

For five decades, corporations spent millions pursuing a floor cleaning robot. Legions of engineers toiled, dozens of patents issued, yet every effort failed. Then came Roomba. Selling nearly 50 million units since its launch, Roomba’s unlikely success sprang from a breakthrough at an MIT robotics lab, an inventor who persevered through years of setbacks, and an inspired team that worked as one to smash every problem. The book provides a rare view behind the scenes, revealing how a revolutionary product came to be, how it works, and how a tiny company was able to best a crowd of corporate giants.

Written in an easy, narrative style, Dancing with Roomba is accessible to all. Anyone who owns a Roomba, works in technology, dreams of building a product, or is just curious about the robot that launched a million memes will find much to love.

Zielgruppe

General

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jones, Joseph L.

Fachgebiete

• Technische Wissenschaften Elektronik | Nachrichtentechnik Elektronik Robotik
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Management Unternehmensführung
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftssektoren & Branchen Fertigungsindustrie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Robot Vacuum Dreamin’ 2. Passion, Desire, and Robot Programming 3. Unfinished Symphonies 4. Power 5. Late Bloomer 6. My Real Baby and Clean 7. Coverage 8. Forging a New Machine’s Soul 9. Tango? 10. Trilobite 11. Base Camp 12. Children of Necessity 13. Reality Bites 14. Hour Eleven 15. Um, Actually… 16. Robot Replication 17. Shock and Awfulness 18. Pepsi to Pop 19. Epilogue

Über Autor(innen)

Joseph L. Jones, a lifelong tinkerer and inventor, focuses on the practical application of robotic technology to real-world problems. In that pursuit he co-founded Tertill Corporation, a manufacturer of robots that weed home gardens, and Harvest Automation, Inc., a company that builds autonomous robots for the nursery and greenhouse industry. At both firms he served as CTO. Earlier, as senior roboticist, he spearheaded the development of Roomba, the world’s first successful home floor cleaning robot. A graduate of MIT, he is author of three earlier books on robotics and holds over 80 US and several international patents.