{"id":19449,"date":"2016-11-18T16:42:38","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T21:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/rosie-the-robot-in-2016\/"},"modified":"2016-11-18T16:42:38","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T21:42:38","slug":"rosie-the-robot-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/rosie-the-robot-in-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Rosie the Robot in 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jetsons in 1962 sold a dream to many people about Rosie the Robot \u2013 a sweet and caring robot that takes care of all household chores. Just imagine how easy life will be if you don\u2019t have to spend your precious weekends washing piles of dishes, doing laundry or cleaning toilet bowls. More than 50 years have passed and Rosie the robot still remains a dream. Despite exponential growth of technology in recent years, many experts believe that robots which can perform many tasks such as household chores will not become reality anytime soon. [1]<\/p>\n

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One of the closet robots to Rosie the Robot that we have today is Roomba. Introduced by iRobot in 2015, Roomba 980 has intelligence navigation capability based on VSLAM (Vision Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) and wireless integration with smartphone app. [2]<\/p>\n

\"Roomba<\/a>
Roomba 980 Visual Localization<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In previous version before Roomba 980, the machine moves randomly and relied mainly on sensor to change direction before steps or to avoid obstacles. The new device is equipped with a camera that captures images of a room and a software to map out surrounding environment over time. The map is used to make sure that Roomba cleans the room properly in the most efficient route and enable the machine to go back to charging station by itself when the battery is low. It also has sensor to recognize the floor surface such as carpet and adjust its power accordingly [3]. The integration with phone app offers extra benefits. It allows users to set cleaning level and timing for Roomba \u2013 which means that the device will do the work even when you are not at home.<\/p>\n

\"Roomba's<\/a>
Roomba’s house map<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Roomba is one of the first household devices that truly utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning. Though the technology of simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM) has been around for many years, it was not an easy task to commercialize it given large computing power required. Being able to embed a computer system into a small device at affordable pricing ($899) has differentiated iRobot among its competitors [4].<\/p>\n

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Going rapidly from revenue of $299M in 2010 to $617M in 2015 [5], iRobot continues facing challenges to innovate and stay relevant in the market:<\/p>\n

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