As announced in the recent RobotShop Press Release, the Mint, a floor wiping robot  by Evolution Robotics, is finally out in the wild and available at RobotShop along with all of its robotic floor cleaning friends.

After vacuum robots, now it is the turn for floor wiping (or Swiffer) robots to clean our houses. This smart rather diminutive robot silently and systematically wipes the entirety of the floors of the unsuspecting owner. It can even mop the floor if need be . It uses a navigation technology called NorthStar that allows it to track its position anywhere in a room with the help of a stationary beacon. See the video below for further details.

Via RobotShop Blog.

Here is a nice little video about the  Neato XV-11 engineering samples getting unboxed. The video goes trough the various features and accessories for the new and exciting XV-11. As shown at the end of the video, the robot is quite smart and can clean surfaces very efficiently. We cannot wait to see an XV-11 autopsy in order to have a better look at the SLAM system.

Via RobotShop Blog.

The iPhone controlled flying robot, AR-Drone, which was debuted at CES this year, now has a price tag. Parrot has announced that the autonomous quadracopter will retail for $300 USD and be available in September. While Gizmodo says, “ouch!”, we say “wow!” because I was fully expecting a >$500 price tag, considering that the vehicle has 2 cameras and Wifi connectivity, along with an ultrasonic altimeter and gyro-stabilization. You can read the details on Parrot’s page.

The AR-Drone appears to be a great platform for hacking, since Parrot has already said they will be releasing an API for interfacing to the vehicle, and the on-board processor is a 500 MHz ARM9 running Linux with 128 Mb of RAM. I can’t wait till September!

[Via RobotBox, via Gizmodo]

Mass High Tech has posted an interview with iRobot’s CEO, Colin Angle, on their plans for the future. Angle discusses their plans to combat the “demographic shift” of a 4:1 caregiver to care-needer ratio to a 1:1 ratio in the next 20 years. In other words, in the next 20 years, there will be a huge need for people or robots to take care of the elderly. iRobot is now focusing on how to help people perform physical tasks that may become difficult as we age. They are starting with plans for a “robot buddy” – probably much like the iRobot ConnectR prototype from a few years back. The new initial products will have a consumer focus, but will leverage government funding to make them cost effective.

As for other home innovations, Angle says, “We’re not done there by any stretch of the imagination.”

What do you think will be the next cool robot to come out of iRobot?

[Via @iRobotSPARK via @Transbotica]

Robot Stock News has an interesting post about a new robot company, SmartMow, and their self titled product, a robotic lawnmower. The mower, which is currently available for preorder, will retail for $999 and features lithium batteries, a self-charger and can supposedly mow 1/3 of an acre on a single charge. SmartMow is currently offering this mower for a special price of $749 ($175 reserve price, and the rest when the product delivers in the Spring).

The SmartMow requires a perimeter wire to tell it the boundaries to mow, but only weighs 17 pounds – much lighter than other robotic mowers. You may also remember that iRobot has filed a patent for robotic lawnmowers, so we may be seeing some significant market competition in the coming years. This is a good thing.

Personally, I think laying down a perimeter wire is a significant barrier to entry. SmartMow will have to work very well to attract new buyers and word-of-mouth marketing. The Roomba hasn’t sold millions of times just because of it’s price point, but because it, like the iPod, does what it’s supposed to do excellently – SmartMow should take note.