iRobot CEO Colin Angle talks about the future of robotics

The soldiers complained about using “toys” in the field, saying that
they were specially trained to clear caves. This went on until they
were faced with the entrance to a dark cave in the mountains where they
suddenly discovered that sending a robot into the darkness was far
better than sending in a soldier. It was this point, the “cave mouth
epiphany” that convinced the Army that robots are a way around the
asymmetric warfare that has become the norm for today’s conflicts.

His main point, that robots will soon do the jobs we don’t want to or
can’t do, is a quite cleary coming to pass. I asked him if there was a
“cave mouth epiphany” in the home robotics industry and he shook his
head. “We’ve sold 2.5 million robots, but that’s 1 to 2% of market
penetration. The digerati love robots, but our real audience is middle
American homemakers.” Looking at his Scuba, Looj, and Roomba, it’s
clear that his audience is missing out and when the finally see the
value of a cleaning robot, the cave mouth epiphany is right around the
corner.

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