IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
               Central New England Chapter

                Tuesday, November 18, 2003
               Informal Discussion: 6:00 PM
                     Program: 6:30 PM


  Roomba: Developing the First Practical Consumer Robot

                       presented by

                     Joseph L. Jones
                    Senior Roboticist
                       iRobot Corp.
                  Burlington, MA  01803
                      jlj@irobot.com


                         ABSTRACT

Roomba is a small and inexpensive floor-cleaning robot.
Introduced by iRobot Corporation in September of 2002,
Roomba is the first robotic appliance to be adopted by large
numbers of consumers. The talk will include a demonstration
of Roomba and a discussion of the robot's history and
technology.

IRobot, based in Burlington, Massachusetts, spun off from
the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1990. In the
early days, the company sustained itself by building small
robots for the research community. Today iRobot has grown to
a company of approximately 120 people with three divisions:
Industrial, Military, and Consumer. Along with Roomba iRobot
also produces the Packbot, currently being evaluated by the
US military for reconnaissance and tactical applications.


                    SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

Joe Jones discovered robots as his true calling when he
joined the research staff at the MIT Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory in 1982. Joe officially became a roboticist
eleven years ago when he began employment at iRobot
Corporation. There he has worked to develop several robots
including, most recently, Roomba.

Joe is co-author of the book "Mobile Robots: Inspiration to
Implementation" and author of the forthcoming book "Robot
Programming, A Practical Guide to Behavior-Based Robotics."


                   MEETING INFORMATION

The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society will meet on
Tuesday, November 18, 2003, at Wellesley High School at
6:00 PM for informal discussions and for the formal
presentation between 6:30 and 7:30 PM. The group will have a
no-host dinner afterwards at Bertucci's, where more
conversations can take place with the guest speaker. The
meetings are open to the general public, and all are welcome
at the dinner afterwards.

For more information, contact Rich Maynard at
chair@robotics-boston.org or write to the Chapter's general
email address: info@robotics-boston.org


                        DIRECTIONS

From Route 128, take either Route 9 or Route 16 west. From
the junction of Routes 9 and 16, follow Route 16 (Washington
Street) west past the Wellesley Hills commuter rail station
(within walking distance of the school), then turn left onto
Rice Street. Wellesley High School is on the left. Parking
is available in a lot just beyond the school.

For a web map showing the location of Wellesley High School,
go to the Yahoo map site at http://maps.yahoo.com/ and enter
the following information in the indicated locations:

    Address:                    50 Rice St
    City, State or ZIP:         Wellesley, MA

The star marker is misplaced slightly to the south. Imagine
it about 1 cm toward the top of the map at Rice St.

For more information about our Section and Chapter, visit
our web site at our registered domain URL

             http://www.robotics-boston.org/