The Robots Are Coming: To Clean Gutters, Watch for Burglars and Play with the Kids

NEW YORK — iRobot CEO Colin Angle likes to talk about the Jetsons, the 1960s cartoon characters who inhabited a utopian, high-tech future complete with Rosey the robot housekeeper, often seen pushing an upright vacuum cleaner.

Decades later, Angle says the age of household robots has truly arrived, and the Jetsons it's not.

"In the '60s, it showed people what robots might have to offer, but it's a limited and impractical vision," Angle said at the Digital Life technology show in New York this week. "Say goodbye to the Jetsons, goodbye to Hollywood robots and say hello to (perhaps a little boring) but fantastically useful robots."

Robots stole the show this year with new models such as the Wi-Fi controlled Spykee "spy robot" from Meccano of France and several toy-like devices from Wowwee Robotics.

Angle, whose iRobot Corp. has sold more than 2 million Roomba vacuum cleaner robots, unveiled two new models: the roof gutter-cleaning Looj, which looks like a stretched toy tank with a rubber propeller for a nose, and the "virtual visiting" ConnectR, a relative of the disc-shaped Roomba topped by a webcam.

The Looj, now available for $100 and up, is meant to plow through clogged gutters, spitting out gunk and leaves while helping homeowners avoid the danger of stretching into precarious positions while perched on ladders high above the ground.

The upcoming ConnectR, available for $200 to a limited number of home testers and to the general public next year for about $500, can be controlled from the Internet over a home's wireless network. A remote user can see what the robot sees with its adjustable camera while controlling its rolling movements and communicating through a two-way audio system.

ConnectR is intended for business travelers or distant relatives who want to keep in touch with families. But Angle said it could also give deployed soldiers a physical presence back home.

Burlington, Mass.-based iRobot has been successful by selling very specialized devices instead of "coming up with one robot that can do everything," said Ayanna Howard, a Georgia Tech professor specializing in human-robot interactions at home.

The company, which also has models for scrubbing floors and cleaning pools, is pretty much alone in the U.S. market for practical consumer robots.

Angle and robot experts say a hurdle for the young industry is getting people to accept robots as real-world tools, not science fiction.

"Having an actual physical moving robot, that's still pretty unusual for most people. But what people are not necessarily realizing is how that technology is creeping up in different places," said Joel Burdick, a mechanical engineering professor and a robotics specialist at the California Institute of Technology.

Cars are welded and painted by robots and will increasingly have automated driving features, Burdick said. Robots also are used in medicine for less-invasive surgeries and are critical for space and deep sea exploration.

"We use robots now in ways not so much to replace humans but to extend human capability," he said.

Burdick said people may not fill their homes with clearly identifiable robots, but everyday devices will gradually get smarter. As the novelty wears off, people will eventually stop using the term "robot" to refer to these labor-saving devices, Howard said.

A new robot with a more classic science-fiction appearance is Spykee, the Meccano build-it-yourself robot offered in the U.S. by Erector, the company known for Erector Set kits.

The $300 Spykee, going on sale this holiday season, has more than 210 parts that can be assembled into three different models. Its "robot" shape moves on treads and has arms and a head-like video camera. It also includes a digital music player, an Internet-based phone, a microphone, a loudspeaker and a spotlight.

The robot can be controlled by a Wi-Fi signal from any computer with Internet access. A motion-sensitive alarm can trigger the robot to take and e-mail photos.

Wowwee Robotics, known for products like the Robosapien, has several new products geared toward kids, including the $100 Roboquad coming this fall. The company calls it "a four-legged intelligent life form."

With infrared and sound sensors, the Roboquad skitters around obstacles and explores its environment on its own. Intended for entertainment, the robot dances, has personality settings and can be controlled with a remote.

With so many kids being exposed to increasingly advanced robots, future generations may take them for granted.

Angle of iRobot said he uses ConnectR to read stories to his 4-year-old daughter and play with her when he's traveling.

"She thinks it's awesome," he said. "She's grown up with robots, so she doesn't think robots are weird at all."

On the Web:

Digital Life show: www.digitallife.com

iRobot: www.irobot.com

Spykee: erectorusa.com/category_pages/spykee.html

Wowwee: www.wowwee.com