ROOMBA SEPTEMBER 2002

Back in the mid-20th century, every futuristic sci-fi author (as well as cartoon TV series The Jetsons, set in the really not-so-faraway space-age year of 2062 with a 40-year-old protagonist) was convinced that we would one day have robot assistants doing our housework (and flying cars too).

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We're not quite there yet, but the launch of the Roomba vacuum in 2002 seemed to hint that we were on the brink of a breakthrough. The first version was a small, circular vacuum cleaner that could operate itself and navigate around obstacles. It was s