On the consumer side, iRobot is credited for inventing the first successful home robot, originally priced at $199.99. The disc-shaped Roomba finds dirt and cleans it up on all kinds of household surfaces all without human intervention. iRobot's Roomba Robotic Floorvac is already cleaning floors in more than a half-million homes. iRobot also provides the PackBot, a unmanned ground robot in use by the United States Government inspecting caves in Afghanistan, and investigating buildings in Iraq. Currently, this tough, mobile, easy to use robot is being used on hundreds of missions a day in Iraq clearing terrorist-set bombs.
Ms Greiner's talk describes this new class of technology, how technology accelerations have affected our field, and how mobile robots will themselves catalyze accelerating change.
Under Ms. Greiner's leadership, iRobot Corporation is delivering robots into the industrial, consumer, academic, and military markets. Recently, she was named the Ernst and Young New England Entrepreneurs of the Year for 2003 (with iRobot co-founder Colin Angle). Selected from entrants across New England, she was cited for her experience, expertise and innovation. She has also been honored as a Technology Review Magazine "Innovator for the Next Century," invited to the World Economic Forums as a Global Leader of Tomorrow, and has been awarded the prestigious DEMO God Award at the DEMO Conference. Her 15 years of experience in robotic technology includes work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Computer Science, both from MIT.
Conference notes by Evelyn Rodriguez.
This presentation was recorded at Accelerating Change 2004, November 5-7, 2004. Check here for the complete Accelerating Change archives.
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