Neato Robotics, a start-up based in Silicon Valley, recently emerged as a new player in the consumer robotics market. The company grew out of a Stanford University business plan competition entry in 2005, in which two students developed a concept for a self-localizing multifunctional floor cleaning robot. In 2006 they filed a patent for a robot with replaceable cleaning modules, gathered angel investments, and brought on technical advisers in robotics. Three years later they announced their first product: the XV-11 vacuuming robot.