iRobot's Dirt Dog: Roomba gets a 'tude

So you've got Roomba on carpet duty and a couple Scoobas taking care of the kitchen and bathrooms, but who's cleaning up that mess of a workshop where you spend most of your time getting your hacks and mods on? Well up until now you had to rely on your own prowess with a shopvac (meaning that nothing ever actually got tidied up), but thanks to the good folks at iRobot, the bad-ass Dirt Dog is coming to get your back. The same size and shape as the more timid Roomba -- meaning all your current batteries, remotes, and charging bases are compatible -- Dirt Dog comes equipped with a 40% larger debris bin along with specially designed brushes to sweep up caked-on dirt, heavy debris, and other messes that are "too dirty for a regular vacuum." This new $130 dog will be taking a bite out of some of your toughest cleaning chores starting on Friday, but you gotta make sure that it doesn't wander out of your workspace and into the rest of the house -- it probably won't pee on your couch, but those 1,000 RPM brushes will shred your shag carpets, scratch the hell out of your polished hardwood, and -- if you have a significant other -- get you confined to the garage for the rest of your natural life.

Update: So it looks like the vicious Dirt Dog isn't the only upcoming member of the iRobot family. A Cnet article tipped us off to a new military bot that the company is working on -- called the NEO Mover -- and a little digging around turned up a few solid deets. Touted as the PackBot's big brother, NEO is apparently a 200-pound robot that can haul cargo Big Dog-style, and interestingly enough, is also said to be able to "move like a soldier" -- not sure what that means, but we won't make any snarky comments for fear of a swift and deadly reprisal. Like PackBot, the NEO Mover will also serve as a demolition expert of sorts, detecting explosives and presumably sacrificing its own well-being so that its human overlords can remain safely packed into their Hummers.

[Via The Raw Feed]

[Gr1zz @ Sep 14th 2006 1:35AM]

Still waiting for Lawnba'

[Michael @ Sep 14th 2006 1:42AM]

Come on guys. How can they possibly build an effective machine, they can't even get their website working properly. Check it out at http://www.irobot.com/ And they build Industrial robots for Bomb Squads? Yikes!!!*^%$^%$

[Maff @ Sep 14th 2006 10:10AM]

the ODB vacuum!

[kOa7 @ Sep 14th 2006 10:12AM]

Interesting area to move into, considering so many people will not buy from companies that work with the military. Lucrative, I guess. Here's an opening for a 'pacifist robot company.'

[Kevin @ Sep 14th 2006 10:46AM]

@kOa7
Ha I would rather buy a robot from a company the military trust to build there robots then form some pacifist company that does not know the first thing about technology!

[Gordy @ Sep 14th 2006 10:48AM]

This is cool...I hate sweeping the basement/garage/workshop.

[CRANK @ Sep 14th 2006 12:05PM]

is it just me or does the Broomba look a little like a yellow-skinned Hitler?

[kOa7 @ Sep 14th 2006 12:43PM]

Kevin, yeah, ``their's'' no way them pacifists could know how to build a robot. Specially when the military's has so much money, and everyone loves to see mechanized tanks on tv, and incidentally they make it so easy to run over people.. I mean think of Tiananmen Square, when a lone man stood up to a column of tanks.. the tank drivers stopped, no one could make them run over him. This won't be an issue with robot tanks.

[Rubakon @ Sep 14th 2006 1:00PM]

@kOa7
iRobot has been making robots for police departments and the military long before it went into the robot vacuum business. Besides not many people refuse to buy a GE washing machine because they also make jet engines… or refuse to fly on a Boeing 747 because it was originally designed to be a military transport.

Anyway, they’re transport, scout, and explosive ordnance disposal robots designed to protect the lives of soldiers, police officers, civilians and hostages. It’s not like finding out that Heckler & Koch also make hemp necklaces.

[Frankenstein Black @ Sep 15th 2006 6:41PM]

If OLD DIRTY BASTARD (of Wu-Tang Clan fame) was still alive he would be suing them for sure for stealing his name. After all “DIRT DOG is NOT to be FUXED with!”

[DianeMO @ Sep 20th 2006 2:13PM]

Too funny. I got em both and love em. Best investment I ever made. Life is too short to clean. Have your robot do it. I wait with baited breath for one that will clean my toilet and shower. Surely it's in the works right?

[J @ Sep 27th 2006 10:51AM]

I love the roomba but not the scooba. That was returned. I would try this new Dirt Dog for our upstairs deck. Surprisingly it isn't very expensive. But hope it is tough enough.

[Taylor @ Dec 27th 2006 6:29PM]

For the record, iRobot's military contract involves making robots to disarm landmines. Hardly a negative. If they do that as well as they manage to sweep and mop up my house I'd say that's an incredibly good thing. They build brilliantly effective machines. I don't recall the last time I had a mop or a broom in my house.