Robot Futures and iRobot's CEO

The Japanese have one view of robotics -- researchers there constantly work at making robots that are like humans (Honda's Asimo) and humans that are more like robots.

Colin Angle, CEO of the most successful consumer robot company, iRobot, operates on a different vision. He believes that trying to build a humanoid bot is a waste of time. Instead, we'll have teams of special-purpose robots that work together. iRobot's Roomba vacuum is an early example. At some point, you might have a Roomba doing the vacuuming while a special window washing bot does that job and a dog-walking robot does that job, and so on.

I've talked to Angle about that vision a number of times over the years. But at CES last week, he added a wrinkle. "I think there will be one robot that talks to the humans and will direct the little bots," he said. That one robot-in-chief won't be as complex as Asimo, though it might have a face of sorts to help make interaction more natural. You'd talk to that robot, tell it what you need done, and, like a good middle manager, that bot would marshal the other bots to do it.

Angle suggested that iRobot's new ConnectR bot "could tie into that" and evolve into the bot-in-chief role. ConnectR is specifically made to interact with humans.

On a tangent, Angle proposed an interesting business idea: Renting out ConnectR type bots at big trade shows like CES. Instead of going to Vegas and harumphing over nasty logistics and rubber-chicken dinners, you could sit at home and guide a ConnectR around the trade floor using your laptop, talking to people through the squat bot's interface -- a remote control version of yourself. Heck, you could even send it to meetings.

(Credit: Richard Drew/AP)

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