Roomba: Hitting the Wall | Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control | 1

This episode traces the origin story of iRobot, the company behind the Roomba vacuum. It begins in 1984 at MIT, where professor Rodney Brooks proposed that robots only need simple rules to navigate, and follows him and his students Colin Angle and Helen Greiner as they build a company around the idea. iRobot spends years on government contracts and robotic dolls before the 2002 launch of the Roomba. The vacuum's simple, bumping navigation charms households — even giving cats rides — and carries the company to a blockbuster IPO. The episode closes by noting that the Roomba is headed for trouble.