“Please fix Scooby Doo because he saved my life,” a soldier told repair technicians, according to Angle’s account at last week’s Future in Review technology conference., a Reuters article quotes IRobot Chief Executive Colin Angle of the company which is best known for Roomba, the robotic vacuum cleaner. Scoobie Doo is one of 300 PackBot Tactical Mobile Robots deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan to open doors in urban combat, lay fiber-optic cable, defuse bombs and perform other hazardous duties previously done by humans alone.
If you consider how people bond with their Roombas, it comes as no surprise, that a life-saver would earn himself affections.
IRobot, which was funded with a lot of military contracts, hopes to raise similar emotions with future household robots.
Angle promises the pursuit of a "physical avatar", which would be capable of carrying out complex tasks such as cooking meals and ensuring people take the prescribed dosages of medicines.
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