The home-vacuum robot began, like most things, with war. In August 1990, the same month and year Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, three MIT roboticists incorporated the company that would eventually become iRobot, the maker of the Roomba. In its first decade, iRobot began to assemble a small-droid A-team for the theater of combat. The Ariel defused mines; the PackBot handled bomb disposal. (Later they would be joined by the Warrior, which breached obstacles; the camera-encrusted SUGV, which handled recon; and the palm-size FirstLook, which could be thrown through a window to investigate hazardous materials.) These machines weren't weapons, but they facilitated weaponry's consequences. At the turn of the millennium, iRobots might be seen on cable news kicking up Iraqi dust, investigating suspicious domestic packages, and probing the ruins of the World Trade Center. From their armature, iRobot built Roomba in 2002'a domesticated robot that surveilled, detected, and removed materials...
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