Rod Brooks, Colin Angle and Helen Greiner founded iRobot in 1990. These Massachusetts Institute of Technology associates had a vision of robots beyond academia and industry, dreaming of practical applications that would change the world. The company, first called IS Robotics, was built on a business plan of space exploration by robots. A successful mission could lead to new technologies and new ventures; it was hoped that the story would be an inspiring film. We worked with NASA and other organizations to develop a robot for lunar exploration that was successfully tested and held great promise. Soon, it seemed, IS Robotics robots would be showing the next generation of kids that anything was possible. The original business plan was well underway when we began to win government and industry contracts. It became clear that these funded lines of research were more profitable, more practical and more technically compelling, so we shifted focus to innovative work that would make an immediate difference in people's lives.

The company grew. We moved to real office space and went from four employees to ten. Then to 20. We doubled our workforce again. And again. We now were working on multiple contracts, developing new technologies and were attracting attention from media around the world. In 2000 we merged with Real World Interface, a New Hampshire based robotics company, and changed our name to iRobot. We knew our mission and were on our way.