BEDFORD, Mass., Sept. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ: IRBT), the leader in delivering robotic technology-based solutions, today announced the Roomba 980 vacuum cleaning robot – iRobot's most capable and best cleaning robotic vacuum to date. Roomba 980 is the first Roomba to combine adaptive navigation with visual localization, cloud connected app control, and increased cleaning power on carpets, helping people to keep cleaner floors throughout the entire home at the push of a button. "With more than 14 million robots in people's homes worldwide, iRobot is the global leader in automated home cleaning," said Colin Angle, chairman and chief executive officer of iRobot. "Roomba 980 is the next big step as it marks iRobot's first cloud connected product with mapping capabilities for the consumer market. Leveraging the cloud and mapping technologies, robots gain a better understanding of their environment, and customers are provided with more control. Looking ahead, these technologies will also enable expanded capabilities for connected robots in the smart home."

"Vacuum cleaning robots can't rely on any one feature or technology to clean effectively," said Christian Cerda, executive vice president and general manager of iRobot's Home Robots business unit. "Vacuum performance, efficient navigation, adapting to ever-changing environments and cleaning under furniture where dirt is hiding are all important factors, and they must be balanced. Roomba 980 takes this into account to deliver convenient, customized, powerful cleaning assistance, each and every day."reviews on hoover upright vacuum cleaners Smart: Roomba Cleans an Entire Level of a Home with Intelligent Navigationbest irobot vacuum cleaner By combining iRobot's iAdapt® Responsive Cleaning Technology with new sensors, the Roomba 980 vacuum cleaning robot independently cleans an entire floor level in a home. hoover vacuum cleaner family

With Roomba 980, iRobot is implementing its proprietary visual simultaneous localization and mapping (vSLAM®) technology for the first time in a consumer product. This groundbreaking technology is part of iRobot's new iAdapt® 2.0 Navigation with Visual Localization, which allows Roomba 980 to build a map of its environment as it cleans, keeping track of its location until it has cleaned an entire level. Using the map, Roomba 980 will run continuously for up to two hours1, then automatically return to its Home Base® to recharge and resume until the cleaning is done. Roomba 980 will clean efficiently in open areas by moving in parallel lines while also taking advantage of the robot's suite of sensors to adapt its pattern when necessary, seamlessly navigating under furniture and around clutter. Simple: Connect Roomba to Clean from Anywhere with iRobot HOME App iRobot's new HOME App allows users to connect Roomba 980 to their Wi-Fi® network, so when cleaning schedules don't match social or work schedules, they can start a cleaning job from anywhere, anytime.

Roomba 980 can also be scheduled to clean up to seven times a week from the familiar Smartphone interface. Available for Android and iOS devices, the HOME App expands Roomba 980's functionality, allowing users to choose the appropriate cleaning mode for their unique home, such as choosing between one or two passes, edge cleaning and whether to use Carpet Boost behavior. The HOME App also provides information about cleaning status, customized tips and direct access to customer support. Clean: Twice the Cleaning Performance2 Where it's Needed Most Dirt doesn't stand a chance against the Roomba 980, which is smart enough to detect different floor surfaces and optimize its cleaning power based on the type of floor it's cleaning. Its AeroForce™ Cleaning System with Carpet Boost provides twice the cleaning power2 by automatically increasing the performance of the Gen 3 motor on carpet and rugs. Roomba 980 features a low profile design to clean under furniture and kickboards, while Dirt Detect™ uses optical and acoustic sensors to detect high concentrations of dirt and debris and perform concentrated cleaning in the areas where it's needed most.

First introduced on the Roomba 800 Series, the Roomba 980 also features brushless, dual counterrotating debris extractors that grab dirt from any floor type while reducing hair tangles and brush maintenance.Roomba 980 will also be available in Japan and select European countries beginning Q4, 2015. Please join iRobot on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. 1Tested in iRobot's Home Test Lab on hard floors. 2Compared to Roomba 600 and 700 series AeroVac™ systems. iRobot designs and builds robots that empower people to do more. iRobot's consumer and military robots feature proprietary technologies incorporating advanced concepts in navigation, mobility, manipulation and artificial intelligence. BEDFORD, Mass. — The clash this year over the future of iRobot pitted visionary robotics against the retail success of the company's Roombas, the circular-shaped domestic helpers that have cleaned millions of living rooms around the world.Colin Angle said he never imagined when he co-founded the company 26 years ago that it would change the way the world views vacuuming.

But the chairman and CEO of iRobot also said it's a misconception to think he's running a vacuum cleaner company.Automated vacuums are the "beachhead of practical robotics in the world today," an important step on the path to the smarter homes to come, Angle said in a recent interview with The Associated Press at the company's headquarters. The mapping software that helps the latest Roomba model remember where it's already picked up dirt could be the building block for future devices that can fetch a glass of water or adjust the lights when a human walks into a room."What iRobot is going to be most appreciated for is not going to be vacuums, it's going to be allowing people to live independently longer so that we can maintain our standard of living as a society," Angle said. "That sounds big and grandiose other than the fact that it's a freight train coming down the tracks that we're going to need to address." After spinning off iRobot's lagging and volatile military robot division in April and fending off a disruptive proxy fight in May, Angle said he's excited about a new chapter for the company that revives its original 1990 goal: building the kind of useful, everyday robots we've spent generations imagining in books and movies.

"It will allow robots to live up to the Rosie the Robot vision that everyone wants robots to be," Angle said. "Hopefully we'll do it in time, before we have to truly face the reality of our aging demographic and the fact that there aren't enough younger people to take care of the older people."Earlier this year, Angle's management team and Los Angeles-based activist investor Red Mountain Capital Partners battled over the company's direction and leadership but agreed on one thing: to strengthen the core consumer robots business, iRobot's once-lucrative defense division needed to go."We were going to end up starving defense if we were going to continue to own it," Angle said.Government demand for rovers capable of performing dangerous military and disaster-relief tasks in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks gave iRobot what Angle proudly describes as a "very important and noble" mission designing robots to keep troops and first responders out of harm's way. It also helped subsidize iRobot's other ambitions.

The profits from wartime contracts allowed iRobot to experiment with a variety of other robots, producing some duds and one huge commercial success: the first Roomba, introduced in 2002.Now it's vacuum cleaners and other home robots that are iRobot's bread and butter. The company divested its defense division in April, spinning it off into a new company called Endeavor Robotics."As far as iRobot's concerned, defense has always been somewhat of a wild card," said analyst Bobby Burleson, a managing director at Canaccord Genuity Inc., who said selling the division "has helped focus the company, but also investors, on what the story is."Spinning off the division wasn't enough to appease hedge fund Red Mountain, which demanded more capital discipline and a stronger focus on consumer products expertise. Company leaders fought back this spring, making the case to shareholders that fortifying the technological prowess of the 550-employee, $1.1 billion company was more important than acting like a traditional, low-tech consumer product maker that devotes its attention to switching up packaging and color schemes.