If your interior designer's got a serious hardwood fetish, you may want to check out Korean Microrobot's UBOT, a floor vaccuuming and mopping robot. Combining the Scooba and the Roomba, the UBOT has a three stage cleaning system. First it uses a side brush to sweep, then it vacuums, and lastly it squirts out some cleaning fluid for mopping.

To optimize this baby, Microrobot says they're installing UV-sensitive tracks in hardwood floor in every new Korean home. This way, one UBOT can cover the entire house with one pass, instead of wandering semi-intelligently/aimlessly like a Roomba. If there's no UV track, it'll just go around Roomba-style.

Kinda neat, and they've a US presence now as well for a US launch sometime soon. Plus there's a carpet-friendly version due Fall '07.

Incidentally, Koreans like Sam Adams. Who knew? – Jason Chen

MicroRobot USA

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