The wonder robot’s connection to the U.S. military industrial complex, ancient China, and the Devil.

Signaltheorist.com offers this 30 minute long-exposure photo of his Roomba in action (click to zoom)

The Roomba autonomous vaccum cleaner offers proof that sometimes the most complex solutions aren’t necessary. The device is a prime example. The Roomba isn’t outfitted with a NASA level array of sensors to develop an understanding of the room. It doesn’t head straight for a wall to start circumnavigating the space. It starts in a spiral. This ensures the maximum amount of space is cleaned with a minimal amount of effort. It only changes direction when it encounters an obstacle, and keeps its slow motion pinball ricochets in memory to decide when it’s done enough of the room to consider it clean.

It looks like the tactical maps in Echo Base..
– CrispyAardvark, Gizmodo.com comments

This long exposure still image was taken by Signaltheorist, a recent customer. But the blogger with a photographic bent has just introduced into his home a device with roots in the U.S. military industrial complex. iRobot is primarily a military robot manufacturer. It’s first device was built in 1990. Genghis is currently residing at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum thanks to its contributions to research. Six years later a crab-like robot named Ariel was designed to remove land and water-based mines.

Today, iRobot is one of 550 contractors in the United States Army’s modernization program called Future Combat Systems. The unmanned aerial vehicles we’re hearing about today are part of that first generation FCS. iRobot is working on land-based versions.

After the jump: the Roomba of the sea, its connection to a 21st Century General ‘Buck’ Turgidson, the ancient Romans, and the Devil

How Web 2.0: The iRobot's Seaglider offers a "Web-based information interface" and 256MB Compact Flash memory

Meantime, the company’s Seaglider is the Roomba of the sea. But instead of collecting dirt, it collects and transmits data in near-real time. The Seaglider was spearheaded by Russ Light, the principal engineer of the Ocean Engineering Department of the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington — a title that may require Mr. Light to carry business cards the size of bar coasters.

The Seaglider is capable of going 7 months straight thanks to its solar panels, and the company boasts the first to complete a 3,800 kilometre mission. And while it’s primary function may be oceanography, the military-friendly company discretely points out its sensor-based autonomous nature makes it perfect for “tactical oceanography” and reconnaissance.

The University of Washington may have developed it, but it has a relationship with the U.S. military strong enough to warrant a website link to the Office of Naval Research branch. The ONR’s Code 34 is the Warfighter Performance department, a division dedicated to improving the combat skills of the U.S. military through science. The department puts a heavy emphasis on “reverse engineering of biological systems to develop devices for fleet operations.”

And the ONR has all the best toys.

Physically and mentally adaptable joint warriors winning and surviving in all phases of warfare is the goal.
– ONR press release

Washington gave it US$36M in January to create the world’s most realistic shoot ‘em up video game.

At about the same time last year it also gave it cash to create a rail gun, as seen in the video below.

I never want to see a Sailor or Marine in a fair fight. I always want them to have the advantage.
– ADM Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations

Admiral Gary Roughead (actual name) says he’s always looking for the next big thing. Whether or not a railgun is it remains to be seen. Instead of using gunpowder or propellants to shoot a bullet, a railgun uses high power electromagnetic energy. Not a cheap form of fuel considering we’ve been making gunpowder since it was discovered in China in the 800s by Taoist monks searching for the elixir of immortality.

The monks had stumbled upon the explosive nature of sulfur, coal, and potassium nitrate (KNO₃) and initially used it for fireworks. The gun was a much later invention, by as many as 500 years, but it wasn’t long before the Chinese adapted gunpowder for use as flamethrowers, rockets and bombs.

Gunpowder hasn’t always been used to take lives. Two hundred years ago during the battle of Aspern-Essling, the innovative battlefield surgeon Dominique-Jean Larrey spiced the horse meat bouillon used to care for the wounded using gunpowder because he was out of salt.

Soldiers in ancient Rome were paid in salt. The commodity was precious and became a form of currency as a result, and led to the expression that a person was “not worth his salt.”

In Leonardo DaVinci's The Last Supper, betrayer Judas is seen having spilled salt in Christ's direction

Superstition grew out of its high-worth nature.  Spilling salt in someone’s direction indicated they would suffer bad luck. The only solution was to cry enough tears to dissolve the spilled salt. And spilled salt should never be cleaned up, but instead tossed over the left shoulder — and into the face of the Devil sitting within earshot.

So the next time you spill salt, be wary if your Roomba is too eager to clean it up.

Photo credit: Roomba, Economics and Long-Exposure Photography, Signaltheorist.com
Source: Future Combat Systems, Wikipedia.org
Source: Seaglider promotional material (PDF), iRobot.com
Source: Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington
Source: Warfighter Performance Department, Office of Naval Research
Source: Office of Naval Research Selected to Lead Technical Management of Vital New Joint Training Program , press release
Source: Gunpowder, Wikipedia.org
Source: Origin of Common Superstitions Spilling Salt, Trivia Library
Disclosure: Neither the author or his family hold shares in iRobot nor have any affiliation with those cited in the article.