New Floor Washing Robot From iRobot - Scooba 230

iRobot has just announced a new addition to it's Scooba floor cleaning robot line. The Scooba 230 is smaller in circumference but a bit taller from what I can gather. The smaller base allows it to maneuver into tighter corners such as around toilets, where it's really needed. I'm liking what I see from the 230 and it is time to replace my 1st generation Scooba...

Robotic Web Cam Video

WowWee is getting set to launch it's new ROVIO roving web cam this Friday. The little robot can be controlled via a web connection from anywhere you are. Equipped with LED lights for night time running, microphone, speakers, a self docking feature and in home gps, ROVIO looks to be an interesting little device. Roomba manufacturer iRobot is also preparing for a robotic web cam with the announcement of beta testing of it's ConnectR robot. The ROVIO will be available through Amazon and Hammacher Schlemmer. It will be interesting to see which company dominates this market, I'm inclined to favour the iRobot offering over that of a toy maker but then again I own a Roomba, a Scooba, and have offered my name to the ConnectR beta test so I may be a little biased. The ROVIO videos are quite impressive though...

Robot Lawn Mower Gets Revenge On Stupid Humans

A little while back I blogged about robot vacuums and my desire to get a robotic lawn mower. The Roomba 530 that my wife bought as an anniversary gift has been doing a great job keeping the floors clean and we've even discussed buying a Scooba to eliminate our need for a mop. There's very little these days that I find more satisfying than putting my feet up and reading the paper while Roomba does the chores. Gizmodo has an interesting post this morning regarding the recall of several LawnBott Lawn Mower models because the blades continue to turn if the device is lifted. Seems to me this was a serious design oversight since even Roomba, a vacuum cleaner, knows enough to cease operation when lifted! Even so, you have to be a little daft to even attempt to pick up a lawn mower when running, robotic or not. Which begs the question, would the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issue a recall on this device if it had handles and was propelled manually? Better to fix it though than have a bunch of fingerless half wits running around... besides, you wouldn't want young children, who don't know any better, attempting to lift the thing.

iRobot and Tazer team up to break laws of robotics

As if I need to remind you, iRobot famous for their Roomba vacuum cleaner robot and Scooba the floor mopping robot, takes its name from an Isaac Asimov's science fiction novel of the same name. In the book Asimov wrote the 3 laws of robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

So the question is, with iRobot's fitting of it's military robot (PackBot) with Taser International Inc.'s electric stun gun technology, does this battlefield marriage contradict the laws of the namesake? The Taser fitted PackBot is said to be remotely controlled by a human operator and therefore will not be enabled to decide who to target and when to fire it's weapon. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against giving the good guys the advantage and keeping police and/or military men and women out of harms way, I just find it a little ironic!