irobot

iRobot, who brought us the Roomba and friends, have now devised a ball-shaped, undulating "chembot" under the auspices of -- who else -- DARPA. The lovable machine resembles something you might find on a surreal dim sum platter: a pale, doughy blob that changes shape, inflates, deflates, and will ultimately be able to squeeze through tiny cracks in pursuit of its target.

iRobot's multipurpose PackBot has helped lead the way among war-bots, disabling improvised explosives and carrying out recon missions for snipers. But soon paperback-sized robots such as the Ember prototype could join their larger cousins on the battlefield.

About 130,000 people attended CES this year. Gaffers and booth babes, engineers and security guards, drivers and technicians by the thousands devoted months to staging the world's largest consumer electronics show. And by this time today likely nothing more remains in all of Vegas than a lone, abandoned flash drive and some tumbleweeds.

Forget the world's smallest violin, we're going the denial route.

Click here for a look at 26 of our picks and pans—from favorite sleeper debuts and sweetest celebrity shills to the most awful sales pitches and product ideas. Light up an electric cigarette, lean back in your $7,500 recliner and join us. It ain't over till we hit "z"!

Think that college lab work is dull and uninspiring? Student inventors claimed a $25,000 grand prize and other awards Wednesday night for creating antibacterial agents, "plastic steel," and a spherical robot that can climb stairs.

The winners were contestants in the 2008 Collegiate Inventors Competition, operated by the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation since 1990.

The Looj, iRobot's gutter-cleaning robot, won a Best of Innovations Design and Engineering award at this year's Consumer Electronics Showcase. Controlled via wireless remote, the Looj makes gutter-cleaning a safer enterprise, as you don't have to keep moving the ladder down the length of the gutter. You let the robot do the traveling instead, and an auger spinning at 500 RPM flings pinecones, leaves and sludge right over the edge.

Still, even with a starting price of $99, it seems a little over-the-top—the local handyman could probably do the job much faster, and, over time, for not that much more money. The Looj really makes you wonder if the folks at iRobot plan to design a machine for every household chore.—Gregory Mone

Congrats to Instructables user dttworld for bagging the grand $5,000 prize for the iRobot challenge. If you recall, we helped get the creative juices flowing with our iRobot iNstitute—a guide to getting started with the flexible Create kit. Something tells me dttworld wasn't in need of our help, though, judging by his winning home service 'bot: it can talk, recognize faces, control your TV, water your plants, and even remind grandma to take her pills! Check out more photos and video here. —John Mahoney

iRobot Create Personal Home Robot [instructables]

iRobot iNstitute

As first demoed at Gadgetoff 2007, the new iRobot Looj took both my daughter and myself by surprise. First, when Helen Greiner asked us if we had any gutters at our home, we responded with a yes. It was after a 5 minute demo of this new gutter-cleaning robot, that we both realized Helen meant gutters on our house and not gutters in the street.

It still remains to be seen how this $99.99 to $169.99 robot is any better than just using a standard garden hose for cleaning the gutters on a house. In fact, the flopping, flailing auger action looks like it would flip the hapless robot out of most built-in style gutters. If you purchase and try the Looj, please post your results in our comments section.

(Image: iRobot)

Dept.: What You Built
Cost: $750
Time: 120 Hours
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