CES set the stage for robotic vacuums to reach new heights

There are a variety of innovations in robotic vacuums on the CES show floor this year, from hands and feet to movable mops, movable towers, and new navigation systems. , it can be hard to see the functionality through all the hype. I spent last week in Las Vegas with my robot friends to find out how to get better. Here’s a look at all the new technology that comes out and how it can help the floors sparklingly clean. An arm to pick up after youDreame the concept of a robot with an arm. Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy/The VergeThe main focus of flagship robovacs over the past few years has been obstacle avoidance. Adding an AI-powered camera navigation system has helped the robot avoid getting stuck in socks, slippers, and toys, but that means it hasn’t cleaned your entire floor yet. Solution: add a robot arm to move the items out. Roborock’s Saros Z70 and the Dreame vacuum concept both show what a robovac can do, given its robotic claws on top. The OmniGrip arm on the Roborock Saros Z70. Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The VergeBoth Company says it has software that will allow you to determine the location of items, so that the vacuum is tidy for you in a new way. Roborock says you can designate areas for the bot to place items to clean, and Dreame says the vac concept will be able to place specific items in specific places, such as cat toys on the cat bed or shoes by the front door. However, there is no app demo, so I can’t see how it works. The biggest limitation of this arm is weight: Roborock can only pick up light items up to 300 grams — it’s currently programmed for socks, tissues, small washcloths, and slippers. Dreame says that it can weigh up to 500 grams, which means it can handle shoes (men’s size 42/9 sneakers). But only Roborock really demos a robot that picks up anything – and that’s just socks. Dream’s arms seem stronger. It is larger and thicker with fatter pincer claws. But I can’t touch it. I got to play with the Saros Z70 arm, and it felt surprisingly strong, especially for how slim it is. What is the Dreame arm that Roborock does not (yet) attach. Dreame showed me a small toolbox that holds two brushes – a sponge for wet messes and a bristle brush. The idea is that the robot can attach it to its hand and then get into nooks and crannies that the main robot can’t. I can’t see a robot actually doing any of this, though, so it’s all still a concept. Climbing to new heights Robovac manufacturers also added appendages on the other side of the bot. Both the new Dreame and Ultra X50 vacuum concepts have two small legs – small appendages that extend over the body for lifting. The Dreame concept robot vacuum can lift itself and has an arm to move things. Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy/The VergeHe’s not articulating his legs; it’s just a small lever that helps push the bot up onto the step, and then the forward momentum knocks him down as he passes the step. The benefit here is navigating high room transitions, not stairs. So, if you have a small step between the living room and the kitchen or a high transition between the tile floor in the bathroom and the carpet in the bedroom, these robots should be able to move between the two. This is basically just an extension of the chassis lift technology we’ve seen from Roborock, Shark, and a few others. Dreame’s X50 Ultra adds greater height with technology – up to 6 cm. Unfortunately, this didn’t seem like a precursor to actually climbing the stairs I wanted. What seems to be all the redesign of the chassis and a few years away. More more The latest Narwal, Stream Narwal, adds a roller mop that can extend to get to the corners and on the edge. Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy/The VergeA less interesting trend that emerged at CES was around mopping. Ecovacs, Switchbot, and Narwal all debuted robot vacuums with roller mops that can extend out along baseboards and into corners. This is a change from the spinning, oscillating mops that have been popular for the past few years. Roller mops have been around since last year like the Eufy Omni S1 Pro and SwitchBot S10, and – in my experience – they’re even better. instead of oscillating mops. They have a wider surface area and clean themselves when walking, so they don’t have to return to the base as often to clean the mop. But the current model fails to cover all the floors, because they can not reach the corner, which most oscillating mops can come out of the main body. Hopefully, these new roller mops will solve this problem. The brand new Mova shows a mop changing station. Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / VergeEcovac model — Deebot X8 Pro Omni — also adds a hot water tank to the robot, not just in the base station. This means that not only can the floor be cleaned with hot water, but it can also keep the mop clean while in use. sub-brand Mova). This allows you to specify a specific mop pad for a specific room. The robot will return to the station and change the pads to use a fresh pair for the kitchen, say, after cleaning the bathroom. This can help with concerns about cross-contamination. I’m interested in testing this out, but my first impression is that the self-cleaning roller mop is a simple, more streamlined solution. Lack of lidar Another big robotic navigation trend this year is the retractable lidar tower. Lidar has long been the preferred navigation technology for most robot vacs, but the towering tower on top can keep it out of sight of low-end furniture. The Dreame X50 Ultra, Roborock Saros 10, and Mova V50 Ultra are all new bots that can spawn towers to get into other places. How good will it be when it’s under the bed without a lidar tower, but I have to try it. Lidar is also supplemented with other sensors and AI to help the robot vacuum better understand your home. The idea here is that the bot can seamlessly navigate around the front and know about the unruly tassels of the carpet in the living room, instead of you creating a stay-out zone in the app to make sure it doesn’t get derailed.Robororock demoing its StarSight navigation system – you can see a faint radar image on the dark wall that appears in the video feed. Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy/VergeRoborock debuted its new StarSight navigation technology at IFA last year in the Qrevo Slim, which is designed to do exactly that. At CES, the company announced that it will bring an advanced version of StarSight to the Saros Z70 and Saros 10R. According to Roborock, the StarSight Autonomous System 2.0 ditches traditional Lidar for a dual-transmitter solid-state Lidar with a 3D time-of-flight sensor for distance detection and an AI-powered RGB camera for navigating and maneuvering around obstacles. Roborock says StarSight helps robots deal with more complex floor plans and houses by using more sensors to feed their onboard AI. when it is now, and it is widely believed. So, I would love to try the more advanced version. Ultimately, the goal of all these innovations is to clean the floor better with less intervention from us. All I wanted was a robot vacuum that could reliably and effectively reach every inch of my floor without me cleaning it before walking or having to rescue it from under the legs of the couch. From what I saw at CES this week, we’re getting closer.

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