| Colin Angle | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1967 Niskayuna, New York |
| Fields | Robotics |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS, MS) |
| Influences | Rodney Brooks |
| Notable awards | NASA Group Achievement Award |
Colin Angle (born 1967) is co-founder, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of iRobot Corporation, maker of the Roomba vacuum cleaning robot and the PackBot military robot. He holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and a Master of Science in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1] He also is in the movie 21, starring Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth.[2]
In iRobot’s early days, Angle and his team designed the behavior-controlled rovers for NASA that led to the Sojourner exploring Mars in 1997.[3] Angle’s team won the NASA Group Achievement Award for its accomplishments, and his name is inscribed inside the case of Spirit, the Mars exploration rover on display at NASA.
Before co-founding iRobot in 1990, Angle was president of Artificial Creatures Inc. Earlier in his career, Angle worked at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory,[4] where he first teamed with iRobot co-founders Helen Greiner and Rodney Brooks. Angle’s master thesis at MIT produced Genghis, a six-legged autonomous walking robot[1] that has been displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Science Museum in Washington, D.C.
Angle has won numerous awards. He currently sits on the board of directors of Axon Labs, Inc. and is active on the Robotics and Intelligent Machines advisory board.