Finally, the Mint's charging system requires that you plug the cord from its power supply into a socket on the device's underside and, given the handle doesn't orient the Mint to rest on its back end, makes the whole charging process clumsy. The Mint really needs a charging base and the handle relocated so you can pick it up and place it back end down on the charging station.

Despite all of those criticisms I love the Mint. It does its job and the results are excellent.

So looking at all of these 'bots what impresses me is that they each show off some cool technologies that are impressive and all of the devices work, albeit with varying degrees of success.

So it is that the Roomba gets a 4.5 out of 5, the Scooba, a 2 out of 5, the XV-11 a 2.5 out of 5, and the Mint a 4.5 out of 5. And taking all of these products as a group I'll give the entire robotic floor cleaning world a 3.5 out of 5. Room for improvement? Sure, but my floors are already looking better.

Gibbs has really clean floors in Ventura, Calif. Brush up your comments to gearhead@gibbs.com.