With Roomba S9+, iRobot Turns an Important Corner

iRobot is entering the “2.0” phase of its life as a consumer robotics company and the iconic circle isn’t coming with it.

After 17 years and almost a dozen different iRobot Roomba robot vacuum models, the nearly 30-year-old robotics company is introducing the first U-shaped robot vacuum, the Roomba S9+.

As I looked at the larger and clearly more powerful robot vacuum, I asked company CEO and Co-founder Colin Angle, who’s been showing me new Roombas since 2002, if it was tough to let go of the circle. “Yup,” he said and added, “the big round element in the center is the acknowledgement of our past.”

Sure enough, in the center of the $999 smart vacuum is a large copper disk inset somewhat elegantly in the body of the Roomba S9+, though that placement has more to do with staying out of the way of one of the system’s vision sensors than pure aesthetics.

The new design and what iRobot is calling PerfectEdge Technology engineering are a product of, Angle told me, the company asking with each generation of Roomba questions like, “Why are people touching the robot?” “Why did it miss dirt?” “Why aren’t people loving it?”