THE iROBOT BOSS ON LEGO INVISIBLE TECH...AND NICKING IDEAS FROM THE JETSONS

"MUCH OF THE INTELLIGENCE BEHIND THE EARLY ROOMBAS CAME FROM MINE-HUNTING ALGORITHMS"

- Colin Angle

I have a lifetime passion to build things.

Even from a young age, I would be problem-solving and fixing things around the house for fun. I was using Lego and other construction toys to create and fix things, which was my equivalent of reading and writing.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology asked me what I wanted to major in, and I simply said: "Whatever lets me build the coolest things."

MIT didn't have a robotics degree at the time, which led me to design my own major that included mechanical and electrical engineering and a bit of artificial intelligence. In a stroke of luck, I heard about a summer job at MIT that allowed me to build robots and instantly knew it was for me. From that moment forward, that has been my path.

I think people had been dreaming about a robot like the Roomba since seeing Rosey from the TV animation, The Jetsons.