As we commented in our review, Mint takes a different approach to robotic cleaning than we’ve seen before: it eschews the vacuum for simple, silent, and efficient sweeping and mopping. Despite its simplicity, however, Mint is also able to localize itself, which is a pretty neat trick for a $250 robot. With all this in mind, we had some questions about how Mint came to be as well as what the future holds, and Evolution Robotics’ President and CEO Dr. Paolo Pirjanian was kind enough to help satisfy our curiosity. It’s a long interview packed with interesting info on the development process for Mint and the NorthStar system (as well as hints about what’s next), and you can read it all, after the jump. (Read more…)

Remember all those questions you had about Mint? Well, we now have answers. Answers part one, anyway. Tomorrow, we’ll be posting an interview with Evolution Robotics president and CEO Dr. Paolo Pirjanian, where we’ll be talking about the history of Mint, as well as what Evolution Robotics is planning for the future. But today, we have answers to some of your more specific questions about Mint, from Mike Dooley, the vice president of product development at Evolution Robotics.

-Why did you decide not to include an automatic charging system?

We gave serious consideration to having a self-charging dock, and with NorthStar already on board to guide Mint back home, it was tempting to add (folks may recall that Rovio already uses NorthStar to self-dock). Ultimately we decided to go without one based on feedback from consumers.

The most common comment was that when Mint was done cleaning, they’d prefer just to put it away – just like they would their mop. For many, having a robot and a charging dock sitting out on the floor all of the time added more clutter to the room, even though Mint is pretty styling! :) So, we worked with the Fuse Project to give Mint a very slim vertical footprint, making it easy to tuck away by standing it on its end.

We were also not sure how much time and effort a self-charging dock would really save. As you mentioned in your review, other “automated” robots aren’t fully automatic. With robotic vacuums that self-charge, you still have to empty the bin and do things like check the brush. Instead, we looked at the total user experience, and how to make it as seamless as possible. That led us to things like making it super-easy to change the cloth, with features like the magnetic pad and zip-to-lock grip strips.

Lots more on carpet detection, Rovio beacons, the NorthStar system, and hacking, after the jump. (Read more…)

This is a set of all of the different long exposure pics that I’ve taken while doing reviews of cleaning robots. I spent a likely excessive amount of time reviewing each robot in detail (and you can read those reviews at the links below), but really, the pictures explain the cleaning patterns better than I ever could. It’s illuminating (so to speak) to see them all right up against one another, so here they are:

iRobot Roomba 560, 45 minutes

Neato Robotics XV-11, 12 minutes

Evolution Robotics Mint (Sweeping Mode), 15 minutes

Evolution Robotics Mint (Mopping Mode), 23 minutes

Three very different robots, three very different cleaning techniques. Check out the individual reviews for more details on each.

[ iRobot ]
[ Neato Robotics ]
[ Evolution Robotics ]

Evolution Robotics’ Mint sweeper robot made its debut at CES 2010, where we got a demo of it exhibiting its cleaning behaviors on video. Mint offers flexibility by doing away with the vacuum entirely, and using either wet or dry cleaning pads, Swiffer style. It’s certainly simpler, but does it work as well as the competition? Our review, after the jump. (Read more…)

It took 9 months and some prodding, but I’ve got an Evolution Robotics Mint sweeper robot here for review. Mint (not “the Mint,” but “Mint”) was the other cleaning robot (besides the Neato XV-11, which we reviewed back in May) that was introduced at CES last January. Unlike the Neato XV-11 or the Roomba, Mint is a passive sweeper robot: instead of a vacuum, it uses wet or dry pads to clean floors… It’s a completely different take on robotic cleaning.

Over the next week, we’ll be putting together a review of Mint, and now’s the time to let us know what you want to know about this robot. And if we can’t answer it, we’ve got some people at Evolution Robotics who will. Post in the comments, and we’ll get to work.

[ Mint ]
[ Evolution Robotics ]

When I did my review of the Neato XV-11, I contacted Evolution Robotics to see if I could take a look at the other new cleaning robot we were introduced to at CES this year, the Mint. I didn’t hear anything back, but I guess they did see fit send one to some website called CNET. What is that, a fishing site or something? Anyway, they’ve got a review up (comparing the Mint to an iRobot Scooba), and here’s some excerpts:

Using dry cloths in sweep mode, Mint captured lots of dust and hair but basically pushed other floor debris around instead of sucking it up, leaving a battlefield of rolled-up dust bunnies in its wake. It’s more effective with wet cloths, moving in a back-and-forth motion when I pushed the mop mode button, and leaving floors cleaner. Its square shape allowed it to get into corners that Scooba couldn’t reach.

On the whole, Scooba does a better job at cleaning than Mint, but I didn’t like all the maintenance it requires. Mint worked reasonably well as a light cleaner, and I loved its simplicity and nearly noiseless operation. I’d really like to see a Mint and Scooba love child, with the best genes from both, but I won’t retire my mop just yet.

Mint and Scooba love child? Oh yeah, now we’re gettin’ freak-ay. You can read the whole review at the link below, and Mint is currently available from HSN for $230.

[ Mint ]
[ CNET ] VIA [ Robots.net ]

Like the look of Evolution Robotics’ little Mint sweeperbot? If you don’t, you should probably watch the demo a few more times. It’s so cute! And effective! Thanks to an “overwhelming” response at CES and beyond, Mint is now available for pre-order. The promised “under $250″ price is unsurprisingly $249.99, and a $20 down payment will reserve yours for delivery this summer.

[ Mint Pre-Order ]

You don’t need to be a robot vacuum to be good at autonomous cleaning, and Evolution Robotics’ Mint sweeping robot is proof of this in a clever (and adorable) little package. Instead of sucking, like the XV-11 and Roombas do, the Mint is designed to use disposable Swiffer pads (wet or dry) to keep your floors clean (rather like this). Just stick a Swiffer pad on the bottom of the bot, tell it whether you want it sweeping or mopping and hit the go button (one of only three buttons on the entire robot). It couldn’t be simpler. Simplicity, really, is one of the things that’s at the heart of the Mint: it’s very easy to set up and very easy to operate, because if it’s any harder than just busting out the Swiffer broom and doing it yourself, it’s useless.

Despite the simple way in which it operates, the Mint has some clever stuff going on under the hood. To figure out where it is, the Mint uses the NorthStar system (the same system that WowWee uses), which is a small projector that throws a couple of infrared spots up on your ceiling. A sensor on the top of the Mint can see those spots, and from their relative position and orientation, judge its location fairly accurately. The Mint also uses other sensors (like an inertial measurement unit, a bumper, and some proximity detectors) to get around, so it’s not a problem if it can’t see the NorthStar most of the time.

We got an overview of a bunch of the Mint’s features from an Evolution Robotics engineer at CES this week, check it out:

As he said, the Mint should be available in Q3 (Q4 retail) for somewhere around (but under) $250.

Press release vid, after the jump. (Read more…)