iRobot Create is Roomba That Doesn't Suck

One would think that the next step in home robot development would be to add more features to the vacuum cleaner. In a surprising turn, iRobot has chosen to remove capabilities from their machine.

iRobot launched their latest home robot today aimed at schools and robot developers called the Create.

The Create is basically a Roomba with all the vacuuming guts removed. It has a bunch of sensors (32), is programmable with a pc and has an open interface for adding more sensors or features - like arms, paint sprayer, baby monitor, weaponry, etc

For $129 it is ready to roll right out of the box. It looks like you also need a command module to make it fully programmable for another $60 or get both in a package.

They also offer the robot, command module and battery charger for $229 which looks like a good deal to me.

They are also offering a ten-pack for $999 for classrooms, teams or dance troupes.
They are available from the iRobot website.

Although this probably will not add much to the iRobot bottom line, I think the low price of the robot and high visibility of iRobot will make it very popular.

Give it a few months for the units to get out there and people to come up with uses for them. I think we will be seeing more of these in the news.
This may not be it, yet. But one day someone will come up with the 'Apple Macintosh' of home robots.

iRobot Corporation: Press Release

Update:
More information over at Robot Stock News. Thorn agrees with me that the $229 kit is what you need to get started.