The orders keep rolling in for iRobot. The Bedford, MA-based robot maker announced today that it has received two more orders from the U.S. Army involving its PackBot 510. The first is a $5.8 million order for spare parts and accessories for the robot, which soldiers use to detect roadside bombs and other hazards. The second is a $13.3 million order to deliver 165 additional PackBots to the Army by the end of next April. The orders are part of the existing $286 million “xBot” contract awarded to iRobot last fall during a dramatic court battle with rival Robotic FX, which we covered extensively.
The announcement comes on the heels of iRobot’s recent entry into the underwater robot market, and the news that co-founder Rod Brooks (an MIT roboticist and Xconomist) has stepped down as chief technology officer. Earlier this month, we also reported that iRobot has won a separate five-year, $200 million Army contract to deliver PackBots and other robots, spare parts, training, and repair services.
iRobot (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IRBT]]) has delivered more than 1,800 PackBots to date—and it shows no signs of slowing. “The U.S. Army continues to show its support for our PackBot line of robots and the immediate need for unmanned ground vehicles to assist soldiers,” said Joe Dyer, president of iRobot’s government and industrial robots division, in a statement.
Dyer added that iRobot is now capable of delivering 100 PackBots per month to the U.S. Armed Forces. Now if it could just invent a robot that could stop us from going to war in the first place…
