iRobot’s latest Negotiator robot to help police and soldiers in tactical tight spots

August 6, 2008 | Dean Takahashi | Comments |

When in doubt, send in a robot. That’s an increasingly common solution for the military and police these days. iRobot, the maker of cave-busting and vacuum-cleaning robots, today is announcing the introduction of its iRobot Negotiator.

This low-cost tactical robot is designed to meet the basic reconnaissance needs of public safety professionals. The robot is a follow-on to the bigger iRobot PackBot 510. It costs less and is smaller, but can still negotiate through tough terrain such as stairs, as you can see in the photo.

The Negotiator is targeted at police departments, fire departments and domestic security experts. Depending on the customers’ needs, the robot can be outfitted with a civil response kit and a range of add-on accessories, enhancing its reconnaissance and chemical detection capabilities. It will be available in the fourth quarter.

To date, iRobot has delivered more than 1,600 PackBot robots and more than 2 million Roomba vacuum-cleaner robots. The company recently announced a line of robots that sniff out chemicals for the military and another line that can dive underwater for research purposes. Maybe the next robot they make will be a Jetsons-style household servant.

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About the Author, Dean Takahashi

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • dean, amazing good stuff you've been doing since moving over (think i commented earlier, as one of those dead-tree reading over-40 types, i love venturebeat and it's use of folks who can spell.... but so good to see you over on this side, though your output has to be 2x what it was at the merc.

    Keep it up -- great articles today.
  • RC
    Dean you missed this fact in your story today:

    http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/irobot-st...

    Last year, iRobot accused one of its former engineers, Jameel Ahed, of stealing its trade secrets to build his "Negotiator" machine. Today, the company turned the tables, announcing it will start selling Ahed's robot as its own.

    Ahed and his Negotiator generated enormous interest in the military robotics community, as a low-cost alternative to iRobot's PackBot. Last summer, the two 'bots went head-to-mechanical-head to compete for the Pentagon's biggest robotics contract to date. And, for a time, Ahed secured the $285 million deal to supply the Army with up to 3,000 bomb-handling machines.