Korea — iRobot has sold more than six mil-
in terms of making a change in people’s
lion Roombas since 2002 — the Massachu-
lives,” says Willow Garage’s Brian Gerkey,
setts-based outgrowth of the Massachusetts
director of open-source development.
Institute of Technology focuses on marketing
Though some don’t see the immediate rel-
to a demographic they call the “meticulous
evance of these projects — the most high-
techie.”
profile coming from Sen. Tom Coburn from
“That’s essentially people who are well ed-
Oklahoma, who in June publicly denounced
ucated, higher income bracket, very busy
National Science Foundation spending on
with their lives, they work a lot, they don’t
robotics projects like Berkeley’s laundry
have a lot of time to do household chores,”
folder — Willow Garage is invested in
he says, “but they’re also at the same time
these robots one day being everywhere.
very, very house proud. … They like to
“I would say that we’ve met a lot of prog-
have friends over and entertain.”
ress in the last 20 years in robotics, and the
Having grossed more than $230 million
last five years more on the personal robot-
in 2010, the company is constantly study-
ics side, robots in and around the spaces
ing new domestic areas of interest to its
where people are,” says Gerkey.
market segment and does focus groups on
iPhone home
how those robots would work to maintain people’s homes. Much like the computer
Using available open-source media is also
boom of the last 50 years, iRobot believes
the current trend in automated housing.
that one day there will be multiple robots in
Company HD Media Systems, a custom
every home, says Beck.
technology home integrator headquartered
“The biggest challenge, quite frankly, is
in Jackson, Mo., won the 2011 Electronic
believability,” Beck says. “We still devote
House magazine Home of the Year Award,
the majority of our marketing activities to
outfitting a house with only $50,000 in
demonstrating products and making sure that people understand they really do work. They almost look too good to be true in some cases.”
technology, orders of magnitude less than HD Media Systems relied heavily on Apple products to set up a user-friendly series of controls for the home, some of which were mounted into the walls. Photo courtesy HD Media Systems.
Simplicity and usability will also be key, he
company co-owner Drew Balsman. Customized with automatic lights, preset shower temperatures and irons that set
says, just like they were for home computing.
the second and third place homes, says
themselves for morning use, the award winvacuuming or other tasks, the Silicon Valley
ning home, designed by Bravo’s “Flipping
“When I look at something like an iPad, I
company does have two robots, Personal
Out” star Jeff Lewis, was able to be cheaply
think that the brilliance of that product is not
Robot 2 (PR2) and the smaller, cheaper
renovated via heavy reliance on Apple
so much in its computing power but that it’s
TurtleBot, that, using open-source software,
products located throughout the home that
easy to use,” he says.
can be transformed into personal helpers.
control its features. The three children over
In fact, iRobot uses tablets as the “head” of
The University of California Berkeley has
one of its newest creations, Ava, a home
programmed a PR2 — which at $400,000
and healthcare robotics platform. The com-
a platform is intended for research — that
pany recently teamed up with California
has learned how to sort socks and fold laun-
telemedicine company InTouch Health,
dry, with the long-term plan of performing
and the team is working on developing a
the entire laundry cycle. The Technical Uni-
remote presence capability for healthcare
versity of Munich is focusing on how the
“You can do anything in the house from
providers.
PR2 can cook a traditional Bavarian break-
any of those pads that I want them to do,”
fast.
says Balsman. “Now for the kids I don’t
Open-source home robotics
“The reason that we focus on personal
Although fellow robotics company Willow
robotics is that’s where we think there’s
Garage doesn’t make specific robots for
the greatest opportunity for a big impact
the age of nine in the house each have one of the family’s eight iPhones, and four iPod Touches and eight iPads are throughout the home — some of the iPads permanently mounted in the walls — and can control anything in the house.
give them full access to the house. I give them access to their rooms, their TV, maybe the playroom, some basic lighting control. That’s it.” Mission Critical
•
Fall 2011
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