iRobot's PackBot Explorer to hit the war-torn streets

It's been a little while since we've heard much about iRobot's PackBot—we understand they've been busy making those things that have been scrubbing and vacuuming our floors—which since we first checked it out over a year ago has since been recruited by the armed forces for Iraqi and Afghani military ops. Their latest version of the PackBot, the Explorer, doesn't seem too different from the original modular machine, but has a variety of surveillance and intelligence options including three cameras. Well, nice to check in and hear it's doing well for itself—just don't get all blowed up, ok PackBot?

[Via SpaceDaily]

[Eric @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

The iRobot is a vaccum cleaner..

[brendan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

uh, Eric, iRobot is a privately held company located in MA. Roomba is the droid you are looking for. The reason why you see iRobot really big on the box is what you call establishing a brand :-)

So when will a packbot get hit by a power spike and become self aware?

[joel @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

isnt this the same thing they sent down the stairs in mr and mrs smith?

[Rob @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Johnny-5 ???

Alive???

[dawggpie @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

haha, good eye joel. I noticed that too. It was definitely the PackBot. They are all about branding their name and products through main stream movies.

[Ian Argent @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Hell, it got a credit in the closing credits - robot provided by iRobot

[enzo @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

I'll take a hundred (for my robot army)

[passingass @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Sooo when will it begin packing mini-missles and a 2.2 gigawatt plasma rifle?