iRobot created the first commercial Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner in 2002.
The Roomba was developed by iRobot, a Massachusetts technology company founded in 1990 by Colin Angle, Helen Greiner, and Rodney Brooks. The company had previously worked on military and research robots, but the Roomba brought autonomous robotics into ordinary homes.
The first model was introduced in 2002. It used sensors to detect obstacles, changes in floor height, and dirtier areas while moving across floors. Rather than mapping a home in the way many later robots do, early Roombas relied on simpler movement behaviors and repeated passes.
Roomba is a brand name, not the name of every robotic vacuum. Competing companies later produced their own robot cleaners, and iRobot added navigation, scheduling, automatic charging, and app control to later Roomba models. The product’s significance lies in making consumer robotics a visible household category.