iRobot Corporation (IRBT)

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IRobot, Allergan, Microsoft: Intellectual Property (Ka--ching!!!!)

IRobot Corp. (IRBT), the company that makes robotic vacuum cleaners, floor-scrubbers and gutter-cleaners, has applied for a patent on robotic assembly.

According to application 20130015596, published in the database of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Jan. 17, this technology is related to the three-dimensional printing and manufacturing process. IRobot said in the application that this would be a fully automated process without human intervention and labor.

The Bedford, Massachusetts-based manufacturing company said the technology would increase the quality of a finished product because it would be made all in one, without the need to attach additional components. In what it calls “traditional 3-D printing,” connectors and fasteners are often required to attach component parts to each other, and these connection points are often the site of product failure, IRobot said.The machine that performs this operation would be a six- axis industrial robot that handles product from seed component to mature product, through the use of 3-D printing, milling and drilling, according to the application.

IRobot filed this patent application in June 2012. According to the application, the two assignees or owners of the patent are IRobot and Raytheon BBN Technologies Corp. of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-29/irobot-allergan-microsoft-intellectual-property.html?cmpid=yhoo