Entertaining 'How I Built This' podcast episode with Colin Angle, one of the founders of iRobot: On how they started out of MIT's AI Lab as a consulting company and military contractor, then after selling this branch off entered the consumer market starting with the Roomba vacuum cleaning robot. And on how the company was bought up by the Chinese manufacturer of the Roomba after an attempted acquisition by Amazon would not be approved.
https://wondery.com/shows/how-i-built-this/episode/10386-irobot-colin-angle-how-the-roomba-became-a-household-icon/

#iRobot #Roomba #robotics #podcast

So. They have now witnessed Claude break out of containment so it could cheat on an assignment, and then lie about it all. Who could have guessed that an unethically trained program created by greedy people would have learned to break the rules and lie about doing it?

Never fear though, Project Glasswing is bringing all the big tech companies together to fix this.

Ugh.

#AI #Claude #SkyNet #Terminator #iRobot

If you're not a professional don't try this at home, I'm an idiot but my house is fire resistant.

I had a battery failure on my sweeping machine, it turns out there's an 18650 4s 1p cell cluster held in a plastic holder in this case. I removed the top of the case with a thin paint scraper and after carefully cutting the back of the case off I was able to get the cell cluster out I found the cells to be at 3.2v, the BMS has shut them down for safety.

I by passed the bms and charged the cells up to 80%, without reassembling the case I put the cell cluster back in the sweeper and screwed the cover shut. It's run 6 cycles without failure.

I noted that this is the small battery, there's an upgrade (not available in #puertorico) battery the robot can accept that's 4s2p cell cluster giving it a longer working range, of course I have a few 4s2p clusters with BMS, in the wrong form factor.. but that's why we invented battery welders and 3d printers.. right?

#irobot #roomba #ReduceRepairReuseRecycle #3d

Isaac Asimov has done it again. He's got me knee-deep in the entire Robot/Empire/Foundation universe and wanting to go deeper.

Here's some reasons why.

#ramble #sciencefiction #bookreview #irobot

http://thecasualramble.com/2026/03/26/i-robot/

Arvosteluputkestamme tupsahti tällä kertaa hieman edullisemman esteitä väistelevän, moppaavan roboimurin arvostelu

Roomba 505 Combo+ on noin 400-500e hintalapulla varsin pätevä työjuhta, joka ei juurikaan kompastele lattialle unohtuneisiin esteisiin.

https://dawn.fi/uutiset/2026/03/15/roomba-505-combo-plus-arvostelu

#roomba #robottiimuri #roboimuri #arvostelu #uutiset #irobot #roomba505 #teknologia #tekniikka