Moxie Is the Robot Pal You Dreamed of as a Kid

It's hard to imagine anything less personable than a vacuum cleaner--until you give it a mind of its own. Almost as soon as iRobot released the Roomba into the world, a community of autonomous vacuum enthusiasts started giving their Roombas names, backstories, and custom wardrobes. One of the company's early TV ads acknowledged this unlikely bond, featuring people talking about their Roomba like it was a person. It's a big emotional investment in a tool whose sole purpose is to suck up filth, but Paolo Pirjanian, former CTO of iRobot, totally gets it. "There's something innate in our mind that triggers when you see something move on its own," says Pirjanian.