Deconstructing Product Design

Roomba Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

Colin Angle, Rodney Brooks, and Helen Greiner, 2002

1. That robots should ultimately appear anthropomorphic or zoomorphic has always been a largely unquestioned assumption among robot enthusiasts — consider early examples such as the musicians of Al-Jazari, the roboknight of Leonardo, or more modern examples such as AIBO, Pleo, and Kismet. Then, with minimal fanfare, along comes the Roomba, an unassuming disk-shaped robot bearing no physical resemblance to anything biological. Roomba not only becomes the first commercially successful consumer robot, it unexpectedly becomes a robot with which people develop strong emotional connections. Helen Greiner comments: “Our customer base — homemakers, people who just want ...