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Robots for Real Life
Troops in Afghanistan had a problem after 9/11: how to defuse the land mines and booby-trapped stashes of weapons left behind by fleeing members of the Taliban. There had to be a safer way than sending a soldier blindly into the caves. Could robots do the job?"They were still research-lab stuff at that point," recalls Helen Greiner, who had cofounded iRobot 11 years earlier, "but when a colonel familiar with our work asked if we could have them ready for deployment in six weeks, I said, 'Yes, sir!' "
At first, the soldiers were skeptical. "But there were these dark cave fronts that villagers were using as outhouses," says Greiner. "The soldiers quickly changed their minds."
At the soldiers' request, Greiner's engineer marched with one of their PackBot robots across the desert to learn what the soldiers already knew: It was too heavy. Soon new, lighter-weight robots proved their mettle. The troops made them part of the team and gave them nicknames. "A Marine brought Scooby Doo, his blown-up PackBot, into the depot in Iraq. Only its head had survived," Greiner recalls. "The Marine credited it with saving him and his buddies several times in 17 missions."
Greiner, 40, understands the emotional power of robots. She first fell in love with them when she was 11 and saw Star Wars. "I was enthralled with R2-D2 because he had an agenda and a personality." (Her older brother broke the news to her that there was a man inside.)
At MIT, where she studied mechanical and electrical engineering and computer science, Greiner got the idea for her robot-based business. "At a university, when the project ends," she says, "you wind up with a robot graveyard. I wanted a place where we could jump from theoretical research to products so that we could make a real industry."
Together with Colin Angle, a fellow student, and Rodney Brooks, her graduate school advisor, she started iRobot Corporation in 1990 in Boston, bootstrapping the company with her credit cards. "Who would invest in a robot company?" recalls Greiner. "That's sci-fi!"
Later that year, they rolled out Genghis, designed for work on Mars. Ariel, modeled after a crab, was an underwater mine detector. The interactive My Real Baby was a popular Hasbro doll. And in 2002 the Pyramid Rover climbed Egypt's Great Pyramid on live television and entered a chamber no one had ever opened. "Each robot was a stepping-stone," says Greiner.
Although iRobot is best known for its domestic appliances -- Roomba vacuums, Scooba washes floors, Looj cleans gutters -- in the lean early years, the company depended on military contracts to stay afloat. Today there are three million Roombas in American homes, and 40 percent of revenue comes from defense contracts. As the industry leader, iRobot is still building cool stuff that people can use every day.
We're at the dawn of robotics, says Greiner, who thinks of robots as technology tools that eliminate "dull, dirty, dangerous jobs." She's looking forward to the home that takes care of itself. Also on the drawing board is the Warrior, a remote-control device that can carry 150 pounds, fight fires, climb stairs, and do a four-minute mile.
Next, Greiner wants to help the disabled and the elderly live more independent lives. "A robot could remind you to take your medication, help find your glasses, or check to see if you're okay. People won't stop calling on Grandma because she has a robotic helper. But they will worry less."
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