Scooba was a floor-scrubbing robot made by iRobot. It was released in limited numbers in December 2005 for the Christmas season, with full production starting in early 2006. The company introduced a lower-priced version, the Scooba 5800, in the second half of 2006. It introduced a new Scooba 450 at CES 2014 in January 2014.
By 2016, the Scooba line of floor-scrubbers were phased out in favor of the Braava line of floor-mopping robots.[1]
Operation
The Scooba used either a special non-bleach cleaning solution named "Scooba juice" (made by the Clorox Company) formulated to clean the floors while discouraging rust or wheel slippage, or the newer Scooba Natural Enzyme cleaning solution. The robot prepared the floor by vacuuming loose debris, squirted clean solution on the floor, scrubbed the floor, and then sucked up the dirty solution leaving a nearly dry floor behind. The robot was safe to use on sealed hardwood floors and most other hard household surfaces, but could not be used on rugs. Scooba avoided cleaning rugs and stairs, and could clean about 200 sqft on a single tank-load of solution.
Some models of the Scooba included an iRobot Virtual Wall accessory, which projected a beam of infrared light, setting a boundary which the robot would not cross.
The Scooba was the second major commercial product made by iRobot, which popularized vacuum robots with the