Watching a family of Roombas tidy up any space is always a big hit, but in 1949 — long before the sweet little guys were making our floors dust-free — a British neurophysiologist and roboticist named Dr. William Grey Walter invented a mini-gang of early autonomous electronic robots; the Roomba’s…
A new study shows that people emotionally bond with their Roombas, giving names and arbitrary genders to their robotic vacuum cleaners. And gee whiz, they can’t even sleep with these robots!