iRobot, Cisco Unveil Telepresence Robot

The same company that gave us the Roomba automated vacuum cleaner is set to bring a similar mainstream approach to telecommuting with the introduction of a new telepresence robot called the Ava 500.

Working in collaboration with Cisco, a leader in the telepresence space, iRobot has taken the wraps off the new device that is designed to allow organizations to seamlessly communicate with remote workers as if they were in the same room.

The Ava 500 lets remote workers use an iPad app to select a meeting room and guide the robot to that area at the office. Before being deployed for use, the Ava 500 must first cycle through an exploration mode that allows it to map out the entire office. Once that process is complete, the robot can autonomously travel to any single office on command, while avoiding random people traveling through the hallways. Fitted with a 21.5-inch screen, the robot delivers high-definition images and audio and has a remote-controlled height adjuster to allow for seated or standing conversations with people on site.

Anyone familiar with special ops control rooms as depicted in television shows like 24 will recognize the Cisco name as a staple of fictional telepresence meetings, but the company has been a very real player in the space since 2006. The latest iteration of Cisco's telepresence software, as featured in the Ava 500, is called TelePresence EX60, a system originally introduced as a video conferencing kit back in 2011.

When the TelePresence EX60 was first released it sold for about $5,000. However, iRobot CEO Colin Angle told the Boston Globe that the Ava 500 system will be available for a $2,500 per month lease when the robot is made available in early 2014. The company also hopes to expand the system's use beyond corporate and into areas such as education. You can see a brief video of the Ava 500 in action in the video below.