Robots are all about taking things that humans don't like to do, and doing them faster and smarter and better. Or in reality, doing them slower and dumber and generally not quite as well, but doing them, so that we can spend our time on more important things like watching really really bad TV. What tends to be rare for robots is the capability to do something like a household task more efficiently than a human can, but Moneual seems to have pulled it off with a new robot that can vacuum and mop at the same time.

Without a specially designed vacuuming and mopping contraption, asking a human to do sweep and mop simultaneously usually results in an uncoordinated fiasco of tears and broken dreams. I speak from experience. It's certainly possible to buy said contraption, but then you have to develop an entirely new skillset to use it, and let's be honest, those parts of your brain would be much happier doing something else, like nothing at all.

So, let's just take a look at the Moneual Rydis H67, shall we? It's essentially what you'd get if a Roomba and a Mint (er, I mean, a Braava) had a drunken hookup, and then their resulting offspring ditched high school and moved to Europe for a few years and came back all worldly. Like a Roomba, you get a powerful vacuum and side brushes and pseudonavigation and all of that stuff, but like a Mint (Braava, dang it, it's Braava now), you can also slap a moist microfiber cloth onto the bottom for some wet and juicy mopping action. Up to five hours of it, which is stamina that we can all envy.

The Rydis also includes a special "Shadow Active Cleaning Mode," which "detects and performs concentrated cleaning in areas that do not receive direct light such as underneath couches and beds, so your home is clean even in the places you can't see." Look, robot, the shadowy areas in my house that I can't see are shadowy and hidden for a reason. I don't want to see them. You don't want to see them. Neither of us wants to disturb of what's probably evolved to survive in those sorts of places, because I'm pretty sure that it's already stealing yogurt out of the fridge and signing for packages when I'm not home, and the next logical step is an apocalypse of the sort that would make the robot apocalypse that we keep hearing about seem like a unicorn's birthday party.

What's especially unusual about the Rydis is that you can buy it here in the U.S., which typically doesn't happen with round robot vacuums that might remind you of certain other round robot vacuums. In fact, it's available in Best Buy right now for $400.

[ Moneual Rydis H67 ] via [ Gizmodo ]