iRobot Create is a hobbyist robot manufactured by iRobot that was introduced in 2007 and based on their

Roomba Roomba is a series of autonomous robotic vacuum cleaners made by the company iRobot. Introduced in September 2002, they have a set of sensors that enable them to navigate the floor area of a home. These sensors can detect the presence of obstac ...

vacuum cleaning platform. The iRobot Create is explicitly designed for robotics development and improves the experience beyond simply hacking the Roomba. The Create replaces its Roomba predecessor's vacuum cleaner hardware with a cargo bay that also houses a DB-9 port providing serial communication, digital input & output, analog input & output, and an electric power supply. The Create also has a 7-pin Mini-DIN serial port through which sensor data can be read and motor commands can be issued using the iRobot Roomba Open Interface (ROI) protocol. The platform accepts virtually all accessories designed for iRobot's second generation Roomba 400 Series domestic robots and can also be programmed with the addition of iRobot's own Command Module (a

microcontroller A microcontroller (MCU for ''microcontroller unit'', often also MC, UC, or μC) is a small computer on a single VLSI integrated circuit (IC) chip. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable i ...

with a USB connector and four DE-9 expansion ports). , the Command Module is no longer being sold. In 2014, iRobot replaced the original model with the Create 2, which is constructed from the chassis of remanufactured 600-series Roombas; instead of replacing the old command module, iRobot encourages the use of commodity single-board computers like Arduino and Raspberry Pi to provide additional processing power.

Controller

Due to the limitations in storage space and processing power of the iRobot Command Module, many choose to utilize an external computer in controlling the Create robot. Since the built-in serial port supports the transmission of sensor data and can receive actuation commands, any embedded computer that supports serial communication can be used as the control computer. A number of robot interface server / simulators support the iRobot Create. Most notably, the Player Project has long included a device interface for the

, and developed a Create interface in Player 2.1. The Universal Real-time Behavior Interface ( URBI) environment also contains a Create interface. The Microsoft Robotics Studio and the Webots simulation environment contain iRobot Create models.

Versions

iRobot has released multiple versions of the Create robot.

Community

Simulation of an iRobot Create in Webots

The iRobot Create is popular in the robotic research and hobbyist community. Some examples of iRobot create projects: * The iRobot Create has been included in parts kits for the International Botball Competition since 2007. * The iRobot Create is model in the Webots robotics simulator * The iRobot Create is used as the main platform for the Autonomous Robotics course at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. * The iRobot Create and a simulator developed in MATLAB are used in the Autonomous Mobile Robots course at Cornell University. * For , hacker Johnny Chung Lee created a Telepresence robot using the iRobot Create and a

netbook Netbook was a commonly used term that identified a product class of small and inexpensive laptops which were sold from 2007 to around 2013. These machines were designed primarily as cost-effective tools for consumers to access the Inte ...

. * Combining the iRobot Create with an Xbox Kinect, student Philipp Robbel created a 3D mapping robot.

Competition

In 2007 iRobot hosted the "Create Challenge", offering with the goal of creating an "innovative robot that's functional, helpful, entertaining, whimsical or simply amazing". The winner was Danh Trinh, with their "Personal Home Robot" which "reminds owners to take their medication, turns lights on and off, and controls appliances."

References

External links