News and Reviews about Evolution Robotics new Mint Cleaner Robot Floor Sweeper

Yes we finally got our hands on a Mint automatic cleaner to review here on our site. It’s very exciting! Let’s start with the shot everybody probably wants to see. What our Mint robot cleaner came up with after sweeping our bedroom (including under the bed.)

The first time the Mint came out from under the bed, it looked like it had a beard made out of dust bunnies! We’re really impressed with the performance of the robot and are surprised at how quiet it is. More on that later. For now, let’s move on to what you get when you order one.

I’m going to say up front that Evolution Robotics is not going to win any awards for how “green” their packaging for the Mint automatic floor cleaner is. The box is really big for the size of the product.

It opens up like a clam shell to reveal the robot on one side and the accessories on the other.

Here are the accessories that come with the basic kit. You get the Evolution Robotics Northstar beacon, washable microfiber cleaning pads, a charger for the robot, and two C batteries for the Northstar beacon. The batteries are a really awesome thing! I hate getting something home and then finding that I have to run to the store to pick up some batteries. Evolution Robotics scores some major points with me for including them in the package.

Besides the batteries (and the robot, of course), here was my favorite item that came in the box. A quickstart page. I love these kinds of things, because they get you up and running without having to sit down with the manual. The Mint robot comes with a manual for those of you who want to read it. It’s easy enough, however, to use the robot without one. As a matter of fact, I still haven’t checked out the manual.

The Mint robots are designed to sweep your floors with disposable Swiffer Pads, but they also ship with more eco-friendly washable microfiber pads. The point of these pads is to sweep the floor and grab onto the dust, dirt, hair, and grit so that you’re not just spreading it around or pushing it into corners. Both the included microfiber pads and the Swiffer pads attach to the cleaner attachment easily and securely. A little bit of either one sort of sticks off of either end of the robot, and this bugged me a little, but when I watch the robot go around the room, it doesn’t seem to hurt at all, and even looks like it probably helps the Mint pick up more dirt from corners and awkward spaces.

So you get the Mint robot, a charger, the Northstar beacon, three microfiber cleaning pads (one for wet, two for dry), a manual, and batteries. The English part of the manual is 28 pages long. The manual has the following sections:

• Safety Instructions
• Mint’s Features
• Mint’s Button and Lights
• How Mint Cleans
• Sweep and Mop Modes
• Operating Mint
• Battery and Charging
• Maintenance
• Customer Support
• Trouble Shooting
• Limited Warranty

I just spent a minute checking out the manual, and it is very clear and understandable. It’s funny, because the robot blinks its lights certain ways while it’s cleaning and it turns out that I was right about what I thought it was doing.

Here’s another shot of a job well done. I kind of figured the Mint would work, but I do have admit that I was curious to see if it really worked. I was worried that maybe it was an over-hyped marketing scam or a faulty, poorly-designed, error-prone lemon, or didn’t really clean. Maybe it would be really confusing to use. Maybe it would just push all the dirt into the corners and leave it there. Instead it has been a sweeping dynamo! It’s so easy to use. This is what it looked like coming out from under our bed. There are a lot of items of furniture the Mint fits under. It came out from under one of our dressers pushing a full piece of 8.5 x 11 paper. I grabbed the paper, and it went back under the dresser and came out with another full piece! It was like, “Thank you. I will go get the other one now.”

While it is cleaning, the robot is very quiet. It does softly bump into things, but that doesn’t make much noise. If you’ve ever had a Roomba or another robot vacuum cleaner like a Roomba, you’ll definitely appreciate how quiet the Mint is in operation.

Our entire house is hard wood floors, tile, or linoleum. I’m happy to report that the Mint automatic floor cleaner does a great job on all of them. We’re glad that now we don’t have to sweep the floor every week. We can have the Mint do it twice a week. The difference in how clean our house is now is very noticeable. If you can’t walk across your living room without getting a piece or two of grit stuck to the bottom of you foot, it’s time to get a Mint robot!

Press Release
Source: Evolution Robotics

On Thursday January 7, 2010, 3:40 am EST

LAS VEGAS, NV–(Marketwire – 01/07/10) – CES — Evolution Robotics, Inc., a leading robotics technology company, today announced Mint(TM), an automatic floor cleaning appliance designed exclusively for hard surface floor cleaning. Mint automatically dusts and wet mops hard surface floors using popular cleaning cloths, such as Swiffer brand Dry and Wet Cloths and other similar products.

Mint’s innovations are grounded in the simple goal of making an appliance-grade product that reliably cleans consumers’ floors and makes their lives easier.

“Similar to how the once manual chores of washing dishes or doing laundry evolved with the invention of the dishwasher and washing machine, floor cleaning has officially been replaced by an automated appliance that achieves the same result, if not better, than previous manual methods,” said Dr. Paolo Pirjanian, CEO of Evolution Robotics. “To do the job well, Evolution had to rewrite the book on how floor cleaning is done. Mint packs aerospace-grade technologies that were specifically tailored to deliver consumers with an appliance that cleans like they do, while still providing a hassle-free experience.”

Supplementing Mint’s technical prowess and practicality, Evolution partnered with world-renowned industrial designer Yves Behar and his team at fuseproject to focus on usability and create a clear departure from the existing masculine and techno looking products in the market.

“We loved the challenge of working on such a transformative product for the home and aimed to create a beautiful appliance that fits within a home’s decor,” said Yves Behar of fuseproject. “The defined geometric shapes of Mint, clear color breaks, low-profile and very few visible buttons hint at great technology under the hood while giving a sense of simplicity and ease of use. We are very proud of the result.”

Mint is smart enough to navigate and clean a room systematically without human assistance. Some of the advanced technologies and design considerations powering Mint’s cleaning capability include:

Dusts and Mops
Mint offers dry and wet cleaning. With dry cloths, Mint systematically picks up the dust, dirt and hair that constantly accumulate on your floors. With wet cloths, Mint uses a special mopping motion to methodically clean each area of the floor, dissolving and wiping up the deeper dirt and grime, leaving floors shiny, fresh and clean.

Tracks Where It Cleans
To clean floors thoroughly, Mint’s navigation system meticulously tracks where it cleans to ensure it doesn’t miss a spot. Guided by Evolution’s own NorthStar technology, Mint integrates information from three different on-board positioning systems to carefully map the room, plan areas for cleaning, and pick up spots not covered on the first pass. This first-of-a-kind navigation system represents unprecedented cleaning coverage for an automatic floor cleaner and truly clean hard surface floors for the consumer.

Square Shape
To clean into hard to reach places, Mint’s unconventional square body breaks the mold of traditional round robots. Circular robots require the cleaning mechanism be nested inside a larger protective shell. Mint features a front-mounted cleaning pad, allowing the cloth to clean along edges of walls and all the way into corners. Sitting at under 10 inches wide, Mint also has a very small footprint, letting it clean into tight spaces, between chair legs and around obstacles.

Adapts To Environments
To deal with different home environments, Evolution integrated a range of sensors into Mint’s design. Examples include first-of-their-kind floor sensors to detect floor transitions, enabling Mint to avoid driving onto area rugs and carpets. For cleaning on slippery floors, Mint automatically adapts to the floor and adjusts friction of the cleaning pad to maintain optimal traction with the wheels (similar to dynamic stability control on a car).

With the launch of Mint, Evolution is not only taking floor care to the next level but ushers in a new generation of robotic products for everyday life.

See Mint’s intelligence and cleaning power in action:

Pricing and Availability
Mint is scheduled to be available through direct channels in Q3 2010 and retail outlets in Q4 2010 at a price under $250. To sign up to be notified of Mint’s availability, and for additional information on where to buy Mint, please visit: http://www.mintcleaner.com

About Evolution Robotics
Evolution Robotics, Inc. is based in Pasadena, CA, and partners with brand leaders to make their products smarter by providing solutions for vision, autonomous navigation and intelligence. From toys to cell phones and vacuum cleaners to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the company’s technologies have been brought to market through partners which include Sony, Bandai, Sharper Image and AU Phones from KDDI in Japan, representing more than 20 million installations. Evolution Robotics is an operating company of Idealab, a creator and operator of technology businesses.

Mint is a trademark and NorthStar is a registered trademark of Evolution
Robotics, Inc. Swiffer is a registered trademark of Procter and Gamble,
Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of
their respective owners.