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Byline: PATRICK SEITZ
After selling more than 1 million Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners, iRobot is looking to secure its lead in the market it created for home maintenance robots.
The privately held Burlington, Mass., company is readying a new type of domestic robot, though it's mum on details.
"It's going to happen this year. You'll see something new from iRobot that's not a vacuum," said Colin Angle, chief executive and co-founder of iRobot. "We're pretty excited about it."
The new robot likely will leverage technology from the Roomba for a task like mopping floors or cleaning bathrooms, says Neena Buck, an analyst with Strategy Analytics.
The Roomba, introduced in 2002, has proved to be a breakthrough product for the consumer robotics industry. It showed that robots could be practical and affordable.
"These guys are the first ones who really got it right and opened up the market for many other mobile consumer appliances in the future," Buck said.