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www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 37 “iRobot is really one of the only companies that is pure robotics play.

We pride ourselves on taking these technologies and manufacturing them in quantity.” • Tom Frost, Program Manager, iRobot Maritime Systems 1990 • MIT roboticists Colin Angle, Helen Greiner and Rodney

Brooks co-found iRobot. 1991 • iRobot develops Genghis robot designed for space exploration. 1996 • iRobot develops Ariel, a robot that detects and eliminates mines in surf zones. 1998 • iRobot wins DARPA contract to build a tactical mobile robot, leading to development of iRobot PackBot. 2001 • The iRobot PackBot searches at the World Trade Center after the

September 11 terrorist attacks. 2002 • iRobot launches the Roomba floor vacuuming robot. • The iRobot PackBot is deployed with U.S. troops for the first time. • iRobot and the National Geographic Society develop a robot that searches the Great Pyramid in Egypt. 2004 • iRobot wins contract to develop Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle. 2005 • iRobot launches the Scooba floor washing robot. • iRobot stock begins trading on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. 2006 • iRobot launches the Dirt Dog shop sweeping robot. 2007 • iRobot launches the Verro pool cleaning robot. • iRobot launches the Looj gutter cleaning robot. 2008 • iRobot expands into maritime robots. • iRobot launches the Roomba pet series and professional series vacuum cleaning robots. • iRobot wins contract to develop LANdroid communication robot. 2010 • iRobot celebrates 20 years • More than 3,500 iRobot PackBot robots delivered worldwide. • More than 5 million iRobot home robots sold worldwide. • iRobot Seaglider helps monitor Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Source: iRobot “With Seaglider, we are realizing new and important mission profiles that it can support,” said Joe Dyer, Chief

Operating Officer at iRobot. “Traditionally, gliders have proven themselves to be very useful tools for researchers and oceanographers to collect ocean data. With this tech- nology, we also see potential for the oil and gas industries to monitor existing lines and to detect new offshore oil sources.”

Unique to its use in the Gulf of Mexico was the fact that iRobot did not merely supply the vehicle, it also provided the glider pilots and made the information gathered pub- licly available via a number of websites.

To date, more than 120 Seagliders have been delivered to customers worldwide, including the U.S. Navy, gov- ernment agencies and research organizations. www.irobot.com