Robots are getting smarter and smarter. Two years after launching iRobot Genius Home Intelligence, an AI-powered platform for its robot vacuum cleaners and mops, iRobot has announced its new software platform: iRobot OS. This operating system for your Roomba robot vacuum cleaners will take them to the next level, says Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot, providing home robots with a deeper understanding of your home and habits so they can clean harder and more. intelligence.
Although at launch, the iRobot operating system does not immediately add features to existing products, it is laying the groundwork for a bigger leap. “The idea of moving from iRobot Genius to iRobot OS is a statement that robot intelligence will be the main differentiator of robots in the home,” Angle said in an interview with The Verge. “iRobot OS currently offers more features for pets, understands more voice commands, and can identify more objects than any other robot vacuum cleaner.” Earlier this year, the release of iRobot’s Genius 4.0 added half a dozen new features to its Roomba robot vacuum cleaners and mops.
The barrier to the next level of AI in robotics is not the best AI. It is the context.
In short, as the competition in the robotic home cleaning space becomes more and more crowded, iRobot says its software is the reason to choose its products above the competitors. The analogy offered by Angle was the way someone could choose an iPhone instead of an Android phone or a Windows computer over a Mac, opting for the hardware the software that accompanies it most impresses them.
IRobot Genius, now renamed iRobot OS, is now adding smart features to the company’s robots through the iRobot app, such as recommending additional cleaning times during the pet removal season and suggesting Keep Out zones. when a robot is in trouble. It also powers 600 voice commands from Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri, and the ability to clean specific rooms and areas by voice.
Angle says the new operating system will allow iRobot to develop a more complete understanding of the home and take advantage of it to extend to other areas of the smart home. Although today the operating system will run on robots, Angle says it will soon run on other devices as well. This includes air purifiers from Aeris, a company iRobot bought last year. “There is a cloud-based home understanding; we call it the cloud of home knowledge. Other iRobot OS devices could have access to it and, thanks to this shared understanding of the home, know how they are supposed to work, ”says Angle.
The Aeris Air 3 in 1 Pro air purifier together with the Roomba J7 robot vacuum cleaner. Image: iRobot
He explained that the air purifier could automatically know which room it was in using the iRobot OS cloud. “It would be beneficial to know that ‘I’m in the kitchen.’ It’s okay to make more noise. And there are a lot of sources of pollutants here. ‘ Compared to his role in a bedroom, that would be different. ” He added that air purifiers, like robot vacuum cleaners, are often turned off by the user because they are too noisy.
Angle says iRobot is working to allow its air purifiers to understand when a room or house is empty and enter turbo mode, and then return to silence when you return. “The idea is an operating system focused not only on activating the robot’s functions, but on doing so in harmony with what’s happening in the home.”
The key concept here is understanding the home. With iRobot’s latest vacuum cleaner, the Roomba j7, which Angle cites as the most complete implementation of the iRobot operating system to date, the company has a new understanding of the home environment, gained through the computer vision platform of the robot powered by its front camera. This allows you to learn more about the layout of a home and understand granular commands such as “clean in front of the kitchen counter” or “clean around the coffee table.”
It also avoids obstacles with AI to identify and avoid more than 80 common objects, such as shoes, socks, laces, headphones, clothing, towels, and pet excrement. Angle says the J7 vacuum cleaners have detected more than 43 million objects in people’s homes and that more robots with front-facing cameras will be part of the company’s product line.
The idea is an operating system focused not only on activating the robot’s functions but on doing so in harmony with the home.
According to Angle’s view, data, such as maps that are now shared with iRobot devices, will soon be shared with other smart devices, potentially using the new Matter smart home standard, to provide this valuable missing piece of the smart home puzzle: the context. (Angle says iRobot is active on Matter and its IP-based protocol is one of the options for implementing this vision, but they are still working on “privacy and security concerns about how these connections occur and what you can do.”)
“We can know where things are so if you put a light bulb in, turned on an air purifier, plugged in a toaster, installed a speaker, the location of these devices can be understood immediately,” says Angle. . This could help speed up the process of setting up new gadgets.
“The scope of what we are doing with iRobot OS lies in this higher level of knowledge. The barrier to the next level of AI in robotics is not the best AI. It is the context. We have been able to understand the stated ‘Go to the kitchen and bring me a beer’ for a decade, ”says Angle. “But if I don’t know where the kitchen is, and I don’t know where the fridge is, and I don’t know what a beer is like, it really doesn’t matter that I understand your words.”
Speaking of object retrieval, Angle hinted that iRobot OS took the company’s robots to the next level: the appendices. “It is only through understanding that the basic promise of robotics can be truly manifested: arriving and doing physical tasks at home,” he says.
This effort to better understand our homes and how we live in them is key to developing the smart home that really makes life easier; one with less problem solving and more harmony. Amazon calls it the environmental house, Google the useful house, and now iRobot promotes the knowledgeable house. Ultimately, they are pursuing the same thing: understanding how their technology can better fit into our homes, so we will buy / use more. But that’s when devices start working with each other when a reliable smart home can become a reality.