The Roomba was made by iRobot, a company that also produced military robots, including its flagship PackBot, which had been developed with DARPA funding in the 1990s. The PackBot showed up in Afghanistan in 2002 to help clear caves and was not particularly effective (the robots lost communications and got stuck). The robot soon found a higher calling in explosive ordnance disposal. Eventually, thousands of modified PackBots were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan to help defuse roadside bombs.
