iRobot Roomba Historical past: How a Focus Group Modified It

One nice midsummer day in 2001, Roomba’s engineers, Winston Tao, and several other different iRobot people rendezvoused at an unremarkable, multistory workplace constructing on the Cambridge aspect of the Charles River, throughout from Boston. We assembled in a slim room. A protracted desk occupied the room’s heart. Snacks and sodas had been set out alongside the again wall; the lighting was subdued. The dominant characteristic of this cramped chamber was a giant one-way mirror occupying nearly your complete entrance wall. Sitting on the desk, one might see by the wanting glass right into a wonderland of market analysis on the opposite aspect. In that a lot bigger, brightly lit room had been snug chairs, an easel with a big pad of paper, and our employed facilitator. Though this was a well-recognized trope I’d seen 100 instances on TV, really lurking in an statement room like this felt a contact surreal.

iRobot vs Focus Group

We’d paid perhaps US $10,000 for the privilege of establishing some focus teams—most likely essentially the most the corporate had ever spent on a market analysis occasion. However we would have liked to understand how potential clients would react to our Roomba prototype after they noticed one within the (plastic) flesh cleansing the ground at their toes. On the appointed hour, our facilitator welcomed eight to 10 bona fide odd folks as they filed into the massive room and sat within the chairs. Our mind-child was about to obtain its first essential judgment from strangers.

aspect_ratioThis text was tailored from the creator’s new e-book, Dancing with Roomba: Cracking the Robotic Riddle and Constructing an Icon (Routledge 2025).Joe Jones

The facilitator ready contributors by encouraging them to state their trustworthy views and to not be swayed by the feedback of others. “You’re the world’s knowledgeable in your individual opinion,” she advised them.

At first the facilitator described Roomba with out displaying the group any photographs or the machine itself. She was met with skepticism that such a factor would really work. Then she demonstrated one of many prototypes we had ready for the occasion. As contributors watched Roomba go about its enterprise on each carpets and arduous flooring, their doubts ebbed. Even those that said that they might by no means buy such a tool couldn’t assist being intrigued. Because the group dialogue proceeded, soccer mothers (representing “early mass-market adopters”) emerged as essentially the most . They noticed Roomba as a time-saver. This shocked and happy us, as we’d anticipated the a lot smaller market of gadget geeks can be the primary to fall in love.

iRobot constructed about 20 of its third main Roomba prototype, the T100, all with 3D-printed shells.Joe Jones

However we might take neither curiosity nor like to the financial institution. We wanted to understand how a lot clients would pay. Our facilitator eased into that a part of the gathering’s proceedings. She didn’t inquire immediately however slightly requested, “In the event you noticed this product in a retailer, what would you count on the value to be?”

The main focus group’s responses had been all around the map. Some folks talked about a worth near the $200 we meant to cost. A number of of us we considered saints-in-training anticipated an excellent greater quantity. However most had been decrease. One lady mentioned she’d count on Roomba to be priced at $25. Later when requested what she thought a alternative battery may cost, she mentioned, “$50.” That harm. For this girl, attaching our robotic to a battery devalued the battery.

Flooring Cleaner or Robotic?

All through the proceedings our facilitator had been cautious to depart a few issues unmentioned. First, she by no means referred to Roomba as a robotic, calling it as a substitute an “computerized flooring cleaner.” Three separate teams, comprising an mixture of round two dozen folks, gave their opinions that day. Of those, solely two people spontaneously utilized the time period “robotic” to Roomba.

The second unmentioned attribute was the character of Roomba’s cleansing mechanism. That’s, the facilitator had revealed no particulars about the way it labored. Members had seen the demo, they noticed Roomba cleansing successfully, they’d given their opinion concerning the worth. They’d all assumed {that a} vacuum was at work, a number of used that time period to check with the robotic. However now the facilitator advised them, “Roomba is a carpet sweeper, not a vacuum.” Then she requested once more what they might count on to pay. On common, focus-group members from all three teams reduce their estimates in half. Members who had beforehand mentioned $200 now mentioned $100.

The main focus group’s brutal revaluation exploded our world. The enabling innovation that made the vitality finances work, that made Roomba technically and economically possible, was cleansing with a carpet sweeper slightly than a vacuum. Individuals had seen that the carpet-sweeper-Roomba actually did work. But they selected to belief typical knowledge about vacuums versus carpet sweepers slightly than their very own apparently mendacity eyes. If we had been compelled to chop the robotic’s worth in half, we’d lose cash on each unit offered, and there can be no Roomba.

On the finish of the night, earlier than any member of our shocked staff might stagger out the door, Winston mentioned merely, “Roomba has to have a vacuum.” A shotgun wedding ceremony was within the offing for bot and vac.

Scamp, the earliest Roomba prototype, was in-built 1999.Joe Jones

The following day at work we gathered to debate the main target group’s revelation. A half-hearted try or two to disclaim actuality shortly light—electrical engineer Chris Casey noticed to that—and we accepted what we would have liked to do. However altering issues now can be an enormous problem in a number of methods. We had been deep into growth, nearer to launch than kickoff. All {the electrical} energy our battery might provide was already spoken for. None was out there for a brand new system that will doubtless be extra energy hungry than all of the robotic’s different methods mixed. And the place might we put a vacuum? All of the area within the robotic was additionally totally assigned. Our mandate to wash underneath furnishings and between chair legs wouldn’t allow us to make the robotic any greater.

Making Roomba a Vacuum

One escape hatch beckoned, however nobody was desirous to leap by it. Chris articulated what we had been all pondering. “We might construct a vestigial vacuum,” he mentioned. That’s, we might design a tiny, pico-power vacuum—one which consumes nearly no energy and does nearly nothing—strap it on the robotic, and name it achieved. Perversely, that appeared affordable. The robotic already cleaned the ground properly; our cleansing checks proved it. Clients, nonetheless, didn’t know that. They had been all steeped within the dogma of vacuum supremacy. Reeducating the lots wasn’t doable—we didn’t have the funds. But when we might assert on the field that Roomba had a vacuum, then everybody can be happy. We might cost the value that makes our economics work. Clients would deem that value affordable and wouldn’t should unlearn their vacuum bias.

However it felt mistaken. If we should add a brand new system to the robotic, we needed it—like all the opposite methods—to earn its preserve actually, to do one thing helpful. By means of additional dialogue and calculation, we concluded that we might afford to commit about 10 p.c of the robotic’s 30-watt energy finances to a vacuum. Standard handbook vacuums usually gorged themselves on 1,200 watts of energy, but when we might develop a system that supplied helpful cleansing whereas consuming solely 3 W (0.25 p.c of 1,200) then we’d be ok with including it to the robotic. It simply didn’t appear very doubtless.

iRobot constructed two an identical second-generation Roomba prototypes, named Kipper and Tipper, considered one of which is proven right here.Joe Jones

I typically discover that fixing an issue is basically a matter of staring on the downside’s supply. Gaze lengthy and intently sufficient at one thing and, Waldo-like, the answer might reveal itself. So I took one of many staff’s handbook vacuums and stared at it. What precisely made it use as a lot energy because it did? I knew the reply was partly advertising slightly than actuality. There was no easy, goal solution to evaluate cleansing efficacy between vacuums. Missing a results-based technique, consumers checked out inputs. For instance, a vacuum with a 10-ampere motor sounds as if it ought to clear higher than a vacuum with a 6-amp motor. However the greater quantity may solely imply that the producer with the 10-amp declare was utilizing a less-efficient motor—the 6-amp (720-W) motor may clear simply as properly.

However even if you corrected for the amperage arms race, a vacuum was nonetheless an influence glutton. Staring on the vacuum cleaner, I started to see why. The vacuum mounted in my gaze that day used the usual configuration: a cylindrical beater brush occupied the middle of a large air inlet. A motor, connected by a belt, spun the comb. One other motor, deeper within the machine, drove a centrifugal blower that drew air in by the inlet. To maintain dust particles kicked up by the beater brush entrained within the airstream, the air wanted to maneuver quick. The mixture of a large inlet and excessive velocity meant that each second the vacuum motor needed to gulp an enormous quantity of air.

Accelerating all that air took appreciable energy—the physics was inescapable. If we needed a vacuum that sipped energy slightly than guzzled it, we needed to transfer a a lot smaller quantity of air per second. We might accomplish that—with out lowering air velocity—if, as a substitute of a large inlet, we used a slim one. To match the handbook vacuum’s air velocity utilizing solely a 3-W motor, I computed that we would want a slim opening certainly: solely a millimeter or two.

That immediately disqualified Roomba from utilizing the usual vacuum configuration—we couldn’t put our bristle brush in the midst of the air inlet. That might require an inlet perhaps 20 instances too broad. We’d have to seek out one other association.

A Micro Vacuum that Doesn’t Suck

To check the narrow-inlet thought I turned to my favourite prototyping supplies: cardboard and packing tape. Utilizing these, I mocked up my thought. The inlet for my take a look at vacuum was so long as Roomba’s brush however solely about 2 millimeters broad. To supply suction I repurposed the blower from a defunct warmth gun. Then I utilized my jury-rigged contraption to crushed Cheerios and a wide range of different dust stand-ins. My novel vacuum was surprisingly efficient at selecting up small particles from a tough floor. Utilizing an anemometer to measure the velocity of the air dashing by my slim inlet confirmed that it was, as desired, as quick because the airstream in a normal vacuum cleaner.

RELATED: Roombas on the Finish of the World

The following step was to someway shoehorn our microvacuum into Roomba. To kind the slim inlet we used two parallel vanes of rubber. Small rubber bumps protruding from one vane spanned the inlet, stopping the vanes from collapsing collectively when vacuum was utilized. We positioned the air inlet parallel to and simply behind the comb. The one believable area for the vacuum impeller, motor, and filter (wanted to separate the dust from the flowing air) was to take over a nook of the mud cup. Drawing on his now well-honed expertise of packing large issues into tiny areas the place they’d no enterprise becoming, mechanical engineer Eliot Mack managed someway to perform this. However we did get assist from an out of doors guide to design the intricate form the impeller wanted to maneuver air effectively.

Typically, common vacuums carry out higher on carpet than on arduous flooring. However Roomba inverted that relationship. Our vacuum operated like a squeegee, pulling dust from tile, linoleum, and picket flooring. However it was much less efficient on different surfaces. The sweeper mechanism did the heavy lifting when cleansing carpet.

iRobot launched its first manufacturing model of the Roomba in September 2002.Joe Jones

Regardless of the staff’s reluctance so as to add a vacuum and regardless of the unit’s low energy, the vacuum genuinely improved Roomba’s cleansing skill. We might show this convincingly. First, we disabled Roomba’s new vacuum by disconnecting the ability after which cleaned a tough flooring relying solely on the carpet-sweeper mechanism. If we then walked throughout the ground barefoot, we’d really feel a specific amount of grit underfoot. If we repeated the train with vacuum energy on, the ground was pristine. Naked toes would detect no grit in anyway.

The Roomba contributors current on the event of the five hundred,000th Roomba embrace Steve Hickey, Eliot Mack [front row], Paul Sandin, Chris Casey, Phil Mass, Joe Jones, and Jeff Ostaszewski [back row].Joe Jones

Years later I discovered that the main target group had a again story nobody talked about on the time. Whereas the Roomba staff had swallowed the carpet-sweeper idea hook, line, and sinker, Winston had not. He was uneasy with the notion that clients can be cleaning-mechanism agnostic—pondering as a substitute that they merely wouldn’t imagine our robotic would clear their flooring if it didn’t have a vacuum. He discovered at the least oblique help for that place when he scoured advertising information from our earlier collaboration with SC Johnson.

However Winston, well-attuned to the engineering psyche, knew he couldn’t simply declare, “Roomba has to have a vacuum.” We’d have pushed again, most likely saying one thing like, “What your business-school-addled mind doesn’t recognize is that it’s the carpet sweeper that makes the entire idea work!” Winston needed to present us. That was a key function of the main target group, to show to the Roomba staff that we had made a deal-breaking omission.

Dancing With Roomba is now out there for preorder.