Scooba

iRobot

The iRobot Scooba is robotic floor cleaner that uses a four-stage cleaning process to wash hard floors. The Scooba vacuums debris, sprays solution, scrubs with a brush, and then squeegees the floor dry in one pass. Cooper Perkins helped iRobot solve some of the most difficult technical challenges on the program: traction on soapy smooth floors, and a high pick-up, low drag squeegee function. For traction, Cooper Perkins worked with materials scientists and chemists to develop and test traction hypotheses based on the interaction of the surfactant, the floor, and the tire.  The testing exposed the best materials, while the research allowed the team to quickly identify the traction characteristics and configure the material for optimum traction.