iRobot Gets Create-Ive

It looks like iRobot, makers of the very popular Roomba and Scooba lines of household robots, have taken notice of all the hacking of these machines that's going on. Since these robots have mature drive and sensor systems, they make great platforms on which to build one's own robot. So, iRobot will soon release the Create, a new model that is essentially a Scooba stripped of the cleaning equipment and loaded up with connectors to which all kinds of sensors and actuators can be attached. Here's a good write-up from Robot Magazine. Groovy, eh?