This can actually be a good thing, though, for small areas like a bathroom. If you don’t use NorthStar at all, Mint won’t be able to localize itself, and consequently will clean a smaller area and not do its edge cleaning behavior. NorthStar isn’t strictly necessary to get Mint to work, and it’s not a problem if Mint gets underneath something and can’t localize for a little while. This location information, combined with Mint’s proximity and drop sensors, allows it to build a map of the entire area that it’s cleaning. You don’t really have to pay much attention to where exactly you stick the cube, as long as it’s in the same room that you want Mint to be cleaning and it has a clear view of the ceiling. The big black diamond on top of Mint can spot those spots, and Mint uses their relative orientation to figure out where it is and which way it’s going. It’s essentially a little infrared projector that shines some spots onto your ceiling. Mint doesn’t have any integrated localization sensors, but instead depends on an external reference point to tell it where it is in a room. The way Mint approaches cleaning isn’t pseudo-random like the Roomba it’s more like the Neato XV-11 in that it actively builds a map of each area it cleans. In our testing, Mint avoided thick shag area rugs, but once (out of six trial runs) got onto a thinner rug that had rounded edges. If this is a problem for you, the manual suggests that you place obstacles around carpet to dissuade Mint from getting on them, but this isn’t necessarily a very practical thing to do for most people. Mint is supposed to avoid getting on any area rugs you might have by registering their edges with its sensors, but if your rugs are too flat, Mint will get on them anyway. If you have carpet and hardwood or tile, Mint can deal with that. So, if you have lots of carpet, Mint may not be for you. The manual spells it out on page one… Mint is for indoor use on hard surface floors only, specifically wood, tile, vinyl, linoleum, and laminate. It might have been better to put the charging port on the side of the robot instead, which would allow for a bit more flexibility, but I suppose that’s a pretty minor quibble.įirst, let’s just get one fact out of the way: Mint does not clean carpets. The manual suggests that you charge Mint while its standing on its butt, which makes it take up less space, but then you can’t easily grab it by the butt-mounted handle. To charge it, you use a wall adapter that plugs in underneath the robot. The modularity of the system also means that you can stick just about anything on there, from Swiffer pads to the reusable cloths that come included with Mint to something of your own. It’s very secure while also being very easy to change. To get the pads to stay on, you “zip” them into two sets of rubber teeth, and then snap the panel onto Mint and you’re good to go. There’s a detachable panel that sticks to the bottom of Mint’s chin with strong magnets, and the cleaning pads wrap around that. The system for attaching Mint’s cleaning pads is ingenious. Underneath, Mint has two drive wheels and two casters that also serve as edge sensors… Mint is heavily weighted towards its butt, so if the casters drive off a ledge, the robot won’t tip forward and has plenty of time to stop and back up. It also has a frontal proximity sensor with which it can detect impending obstacles to prevent itself from running headlong into walls and stuff. Mint’s ‘chin’ is a pressure-actuated bumper, similar to other robot vacuums. The big black diamond is how Mint localizes itself on your floor more on that later. ![]() On top, it has three backlit operation buttons and three small indicator lights, and that’s the extent of the interface, although it also sings to you to let you know when it’s charging, finished, stuck, etc. It’s compact (10 inches wide, 3 inches high), but at about 4 pounds I wouldn’t call it light. I like its clean lines and straightforwardly modern black and white color scheme. It’s certainly simpler, but does it work as well as the competition? Our review, after the jump. ![]() Mint offers flexibility by doing away with the vacuum entirely, and using either wet or dry cleaning pads, Swiffer style. Evolution Robotics’ Mint sweeper robot made its debut at CES 2010, where we got a demo of it exhibiting its cleaning behaviors on video.
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