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American Morning
Interview with Colin Angle
Aired September 20, 2002 - 08:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This week we may be seeing the first spin-off of technology being used in Afghanistan making its way from the war zone to the home front. For the first time, the military is using robots like this one, made by a company called iRobot, to go into caves ahead of the soldiers to test for mines, booby traps, etc., and make sure it's safe before our guys go in.
Well, now the same technology that is being used to clear caves is also being used to clean floors here in the United States. Unless you think that a robot vacuum cleaner is going to resemble Rosie, the robot on "The Jetsons," you're in for a bit of a surprise.
Joining us is Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot, the creator of the Roomba.
Good morning.
COLIN ANGLE, FOUNDER AND CEO, IROBOT: Good morning.
CAFFERTY: So show us what you've got here.
ANGLE: OK. Well, what I've got here is Roomba. This is the world's first practical home robot. And what it does is clean your floors. I've got a little demonstration down here. We can...
CAFFERTY: Right. We got some crushed Cheerios on the rug.
ANGLE: That's right. So all you do is put it on the ground, turn it on and I'm going to just hit one button and we can walk away. And you can see the robot is going to be spinning around in an ever increasing circle.
CAFFERTY: It looks like a motorized bagel.
ANGLE: Absolutely. And it just goes over and it will clean your floor. It works on carpets and hard floors, automatically adjusting.
CAFFERTY: You see that Cheerio right there?
ANGLE: That's right, yes.
CAFFERTY: Is it going to get it?
ANGLE: Absolutely.
CAFFERTY: It is? How does it know where the Cheerios are?
ANGLE: This robot will, you pen it into a room...
CAFFERTY: OK.
ANGLE: ... with walls and stairs, it will never go over a stair, and it just keeps going. It might take, to do a 10 x 12 room it might take about 20 minutes. It's going to go over every bit of this carpet three or four or five times in the process.
CAFFERTY: So eventually it will get that Cheerio that it's missed?
ANGLE: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. It might not...
CAFFERTY: How much does this cost?
ANGLE: That's one of the remarkable things, this robot not just works well, it's less than $200.
CAFFERTY: So the first practical application of robot technology that's affordable for people, right?
ANGLE: That's what we've accomplished.
CAFFERTY: How long does it take to do the whole house? Say I've got a three bedroom house.
ANGLE: A three bedroom house, probably about an hour and a half.
CAFFERTY: Can you put it back down? I want to see if it's going to get that one Cheerio. It's missed one Cheerio so, so far it's getting a B- here.
ANGLE: All right, well, we'll get it. A B-? OK. Well, we can't let that happen.
CAFFERTY: There it goes. All right, it got the last one.
ANGLE: No worries.
CAFFERTY: And how long will it run on the battery charge that it's got in it now?
ANGLE: One battery will last for about an hour and a half.
CAFFERTY: Oh, I see, it's got that -- when that little front bumper touches something, that's the signal for it to change direction, right?
ANGLE: Exactly.
CAFFERTY: Like right there. OK.
ANGLE: And it has a brush on it that will go, allow it to go, clean all the way up to the edge of...
CAFFERTY: Now, realistically, does it do as good a job as those big uprights that, you know, they advertise on TV that will, you know, suck the fibers out of the rug for you? I mean it doesn't look like it has that much power.
ANGLE: On a hard floor this works as well or better than an upright.
CAFFERTY: OK.
ANGLE: And on a carpet it will do a great job, routine cleaning. If you've got something that you need a steam vac or some big thick carpet with stuff all the way down, well maybe you pull it out. But for routine, everyday cleaning, put it on the ground and you're done.
CAFFERTY: All right, Colin, it's good to see you and Roomba here on AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks for coming by.
ANGLE: All right.
CAFFERTY: And it did get all the Cheerios, just so those of you at home might be wondering. Two hundred bucks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 20, 2002 - 08:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This week we may be seeing the first spin-off of technology being used in Afghanistan making its way from the war zone to the home front. For the first time, the military is using robots like this one, made by a company called iRobot, to go into caves ahead of the soldiers to test for mines, booby traps, etc., and make sure it's safe before our guys go in.
Well, now the same technology that is being used to clear caves is also being used to clean floors here in the United States. Unless you think that a robot vacuum cleaner is going to resemble Rosie, the robot on "The Jetsons," you're in for a bit of a surprise.
Joining us is Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot, the creator of the Roomba.
Good morning.
COLIN ANGLE, FOUNDER AND CEO, IROBOT: Good morning.
CAFFERTY: So show us what you've got here.
ANGLE: OK. Well, what I've got here is Roomba. This is the world's first practical home robot. And what it does is clean your floors. I've got a little demonstration down here. We can...
CAFFERTY: Right. We got some crushed Cheerios on the rug.
ANGLE: That's right. So all you do is put it on the ground, turn it on and I'm going to just hit one button and we can walk away. And you can see the robot is going to be spinning around in an ever increasing circle.
CAFFERTY: It looks like a motorized bagel.
ANGLE: Absolutely. And it just goes over and it will clean your floor. It works on carpets and hard floors, automatically adjusting.
CAFFERTY: You see that Cheerio right there?
ANGLE: That's right, yes.
CAFFERTY: Is it going to get it?
ANGLE: Absolutely.
CAFFERTY: It is? How does it know where the Cheerios are?
ANGLE: This robot will, you pen it into a room...
CAFFERTY: OK.
ANGLE: ... with walls and stairs, it will never go over a stair, and it just keeps going. It might take, to do a 10 x 12 room it might take about 20 minutes. It's going to go over every bit of this carpet three or four or five times in the process.
CAFFERTY: So eventually it will get that Cheerio that it's missed?
ANGLE: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. It might not...
CAFFERTY: How much does this cost?
ANGLE: That's one of the remarkable things, this robot not just works well, it's less than $200.
CAFFERTY: So the first practical application of robot technology that's affordable for people, right?
ANGLE: That's what we've accomplished.
CAFFERTY: How long does it take to do the whole house? Say I've got a three bedroom house.
ANGLE: A three bedroom house, probably about an hour and a half.
CAFFERTY: Can you put it back down? I want to see if it's going to get that one Cheerio. It's missed one Cheerio so, so far it's getting a B- here.
ANGLE: All right, well, we'll get it. A B-? OK. Well, we can't let that happen.
CAFFERTY: There it goes. All right, it got the last one.
ANGLE: No worries.
CAFFERTY: And how long will it run on the battery charge that it's got in it now?
ANGLE: One battery will last for about an hour and a half.
CAFFERTY: Oh, I see, it's got that -- when that little front bumper touches something, that's the signal for it to change direction, right?
ANGLE: Exactly.
CAFFERTY: Like right there. OK.
ANGLE: And it has a brush on it that will go, allow it to go, clean all the way up to the edge of...
CAFFERTY: Now, realistically, does it do as good a job as those big uprights that, you know, they advertise on TV that will, you know, suck the fibers out of the rug for you? I mean it doesn't look like it has that much power.
ANGLE: On a hard floor this works as well or better than an upright.
CAFFERTY: OK.
ANGLE: And on a carpet it will do a great job, routine cleaning. If you've got something that you need a steam vac or some big thick carpet with stuff all the way down, well maybe you pull it out. But for routine, everyday cleaning, put it on the ground and you're done.
CAFFERTY: All right, Colin, it's good to see you and Roomba here on AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks for coming by.
ANGLE: All right.
CAFFERTY: And it did get all the Cheerios, just so those of you at home might be wondering. Two hundred bucks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
