New Floor Cleaning Robot To Take On iRobot's Scooba

If you've followed Great Big Geek for a while you'll know that I have a love for iRobot, in fact I own 2 Roomba vacuum cleaning robots and a Scooba floor mopping robot... they save me a lot of time and effort and do a great job in the process. From CES comes a new challenger to the robotic home appliance market - "Mint".

Mint is a sexy little robot from Evolution Robotics. The big differences seem to be:

1. It's shape, square vs. the iRobot round products;
2. The use of a Swiffer duster pad vs. iRobot's Clorox solution or vinegar; and
3. A systemic cleaning pattern vs. iRobot's wandering - multiple pass method.

If anyone at Evolution Robotics is listening.... I'd love to get my hands on one to do a comparison/review!

Check out the Cnet video from CES:

iRobot announces winner in the iRobot Create Challenge

The “Personal Home Robot” was announced today as the winner of iRobot's Create Challenge and it's creator Danh Trinh, 35, of Towson, Md., took home $5,000 for his efforts. The device can water plants, control lights and appliances, play music and remind owners to take medication. “This is an excellent example of the enthusiasm people bring to the idea of building robots,” said Helen Greiner, co-founder and chairman, iRobot Corp. “Contestants put in amazing efforts creating exciting and imaginative robots for the challenge. We saw everything from robots that serve food and drinks to robots that paint pictures and can be remotely controlled from distant locations.” No mention was made of any intentions to market "Personal Home Robot" but I'd sure like to have a robot that could take care of the plants!