iRobot buys Root Robotics, expands education reach into elementary schools
iRobot said it has acquired Root Robotics, a company focused on educational robots, in a move that will broaden its education reach.
The company also rolled out the Root Coding Robot via the acquisition. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
Root Robotics offered an educational robot capable of teaching children as young as four years old to code. The Root Coding Robot has two wheels and can operate on tables, floors and countertops as well as other surfaces.
How iRobot used data science, cloud, and DevOps to design its next-gen smart home robots | (Download article as a PDF (free registration required) | Why computer vision is key to iRobot's strategic roadmap
The idea is that students can instruct Root to draw, play music, respond to inputs and carry at tasks based on coding languages that go from graphical blocks to full text coding.
As previously reported, education is an potential area for growth for iRobot, which has a strategy that revolves around using data science to become more of an operating platform for smart homes and consumers. iRobot has its own education platform and robot, but Root Robotics will give the company the ability to reach into elementary schools.
iRobot said the deal isn't material to its results, but it's worth noting that Root sold its robot for $199 with packages of 6 for $1,199 and packs up to 30 robots for schools at $5,995.
Also see
- Roomba gets an upgrade and a new floor mopping sidekick (CNET)
- Cracking Open the Roomba 980 robot vacuum (TechRepublic)
- Joe Jones: Roomba inventor. Roboticist. Vindicated pioneer.(TechRepublic)
- A robot revolution is well underway, driven by core technologies (ZDNet)
- Emergency responders drop this squishy robot from 600 feet (ZDNet)
- Security robots now have facial recognition. Face of the future? (ZDNet)