Dancing with Roomba: Cracking the Robot Riddle and Building an Icon

Dancing with Roomba tells the unexpected story of the world’s favorite robot.

For five decades, corporations spent millions pursuing a floor-cleaning robot. Legions of engineers toiled, dozens of patents were issued, yet every effort failed. Then came Roomba. Selling nearly 50 million units since its launch, Roomba’s unlikely success sprang from a breakthrough at an MIT robotics lab, an inventor who persevered through years of setbacks, and an inspired team that worked as one to smash every...