Roomba gets a sidekick: Scooba makes mopping obsolete

iRobot, deities of all things floor-cleaning and robotic, have introed a new sibling to the Roomba robotic vacuum/child herder. The Scooba is designed for some industrial strength cleaning action on your tile and linoleum floors, which it achieves by first vacuuming up the flotsam and jetsam, then applying a liquid cleaner, and following up by drying the floor — making it also safe when used on wood floors. Price isn't set, though iRobot CEO Colin Angle promised consumers "won't get sticker shock." As to availability, limited supplies will supposedly be available "this holiday season," which we can only assume means that whole December 25th time frame — apparently in America, it is the only holiday.

[www.mygadgetbag.com @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

This company is awesome.

Now they need to just come out with a stinkin' lawnmower already!

[Will @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

I hope it can easily distinguish between hard flooring and carpeting.

[TheCash @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Actually the 'holiday season' generally reffers to late october-early january since there are 4 major (at least in the US) holidays back to back in the same amount of months. Considering in the UK a 'Holiday' is anytime the fam goes on a road trip, I mention of the 'holiday season' to be much less annoying and tedious. And I am still holding out for the RC Lawnmower from 'Honey I shrunk the kids.' Cheers

[TheCash @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

I find mention of, not I mention. Damn US public schooling...

[Scott @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

They already have a robotic lawnmower:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001LF48G/qid=1116884164/sr=8-3/ref=pd_csp_3/102-2200345-6738543?v=glance&s=home-garden&n=507846

[Jason @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

With regard to the robotic lawnmower, did you mean "they" as in iRobot, or they as in the proverbial they who come out with techno things (as in, "what with they think of next?")?

[narco @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Yes, I'd definitely get one of these if it did hardwood floors. It's such a nightmare with shedding cats!

Fishes,
narco.

[P. MacGrevice, Esq. @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

I was Googling for cleaning advice, particularly for the enterprising gentleman whose free time is micromanaged by his buddies, lady friend, and tropical fish. Then I thought, f**k it, I have some money, so why the hell would I want to waste my time cleaning when the Roomba vacuum does it for me? And with this new model, it looks like the only time I'll need to get down and dirty on the floors is when there's some Al Greene on the stereo.

[Eric W @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

A robotic lawnmower is just ASKING to get stolen.

[Jeeves @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

During development, the code name was "spongebob". HA!

[kerry @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

RE #2:
The roomba comes with virtual fences. They're little laser boxes you can set at the edge of a room or in the doorway to keep the roomba from going outside the desired area. Presumably you would, say, stick your scooba in the kitchen and put a fence in the doorway to keep it from going onto the carpeted living room, for example.

[creamofcow @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

how are corners ever going to get clean?

[Rocky Chang @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

I highly recomend checking out the SNL sketch about the "Woomba." It's the robot that cleans your nooney.

[D @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

#10 - many people have these things called rugs, which are often placed randomly on hardwood floors

[Bweetza @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

#13 - You don't remove your rugs when you mop your floors by hand? Pick up the rugs in the kitchen, put up an invisible fence to block off the fully carpeted living room and let the Scooba do it's work in the kitchen.

[furtim @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

And if you're too lazy to even do what #14 said, I'm going to have to call FEMA and the CDC to quarantine your house. ;P

[Crystal @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Saw the robot lawnmower (or Mowbot) on the news last night. Pretty nifty.
http://www.mower-magic.co.uk/acatalog/MOWBOT.html

[Greg @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

I've had robot mower for 3 years now. (www.friendlyrobotics.com) Makes me smile everytime I use it. works good enough for me, except now I have to recalibrate my lawn so "Roby" won't get stuck on low spots. I've been meaning to attach a wirless video camera so i could sit in the house and get a lawnmowers eye view while it was working.

[Roomba Review @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

#14: The regular Roomba models work very well on rugs as well as hardwood floors.

What several people in our message boards have been wondering is what the Scooba will do if it encounters a rug.

http://www.roombareview.com/chat

[Jack @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

I have a robot mower too (same as greg). It really didn't save any time for the first few runs because I was watching it instead of doing other things. A cam would be cool!
Good info here
http://www.probotics.com/robomower

[Jon @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Here's a link to the Woomba video (funny)

http://www.slashdong.org/movies/woomba.avi

[christine @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

does the scooba sweep up the dirt & crumbs as well as the roomba??