Scooba

Scooba is the name of a robot designed for vacuuming, scrubbing, and drying floors in households and businesses. Built by the iRobot Corporation, Scooba is an enhanced version of the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, which was developed by a team from the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The cleaning technology employed by Scooba was engineered by Clorox, the chemical manufacturer widely known for laundry bleach. Scooba continuously vacuums, scrubs, and dries using a special algorithm developed by iRobot to make multiple passes over a floor until it "thinks" the entire exposed surface has been cleaned. The machine operates from a rechargeable battery that allows for 90 minutes run time between charges. Scooba can maneuver under most furniture, and is designed to avoid carpets and stairways. The machine, which is roughly the diameter of a round bathroom scale (but somewhat taller), is expected to be available for consumers in late 2005.

Read more about it at: > iRobot provides information about Scooba on its Web site.

Last updated on: Sep 21, 2005

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