Tiny feet, bionic arms and bots that can deliver a sandwich – 6 weird and wonderful robot vacuum cleaner innovations from CES 2025
As one of Ny Breaking’s Homes Editors, I’ve been following the robot vacuum market closely for some time. Although I am enthusiastic about cleaning houses efficiently, I rarely hear about any Robovac news, which makes me feel mixed about the press release. Today’s best robot vacuum cleaners are very impressive, but rarely exciting.
As CES 2025 – the world’s largest consumer technology event – approached, I expected more of the same: robot vacuum cleaners that are more capable, efficient and intelligent than their predecessors, but nothing overly dramatic. I was wrong. The robovac brands are really going off-piste this year, and I’m here for it.
It started with a phone call about a robot vacuum cleaner with a giant mechanical pincer arm attached to it, and things just escalated from there. Before I knew it, I heard about a bot that could hoist itself onto poles and climb over doorways. Then there was a robot vacuum cleaner that wasn’t satisfied with cleaning your floors, but also wanted to be able to deliver a sandwich to your grandma. Whether these innovations will be useful remains to be seen, but they are certainly interesting.
Now that CES has completed another year, here are my picks of the weirdest and most wonderful robot vacuum cleaner innovations set to debut at this year’s event.
1. Bionic arms
Roborock launched three new robot vacuum cleaners at CES 2025, but by far the most eye-catching was the Saros Z70. And that’s because it has a large mechanical pincer arm. This arm remains hidden beneath a mysterious hatch on top of the bot until it is summoned, at which point it emerges to do its owner’s bidding. I got an early pre-CES preview and it was pretty fascinating.
At this point, the arm’s main function is to clean up your mess. For example, you can instruct him to pick up anything he recognizes as a sock and place it next to the laundry basket. This keeps the floor brighter and allows you to vacuum more effectively.
Perhaps even more exciting is that this is not technology from the distant future. The last I heard was that the Saros Z70 would be released in the first half of this year. In the future, Roborock also seems keen on adding further functionality – for example, it’s working on training the arm to play with your cat.
Although Roborock is the furthest along on its journey, it is not the only brand experimenting with useful robots. Dreame used CES to demonstrate a robot vacuum cleaner with a ‘Bionic Multi-Joint Robotic Arm’. Unlike Roborock’s efforts, this arm can rotate in different directions, theoretically allowing it to work in tighter spaces.
On the homepage of the SwitchBot event there is a video showing a bot two arms ending in human-looking shaped hands. However, these aren’t covered anywhere else, so I’m assuming the idea is still in the early stages of development.
Read the full story: Roborock’s new robovac has a mechanical arm that can pick up your socks and maybe play with your cat too
2. Robovacs that can also be fans, air purifiers, security cameras…
Many of today’s best robovacs can both mop and vacuum. But what if that’s not enough? What if you want your robovac to keep you cool or hold up a tablet while you’re on a video call? What if you want it to deliver a sandwich to your grandma? These are issues that SwitchBot believes are currently plaguing the general public, and the company has come up with a solution.
On its own, the SwitchBot K20+ Pro looks like a regular, albeit small, robot vacuum cleaner. However, link it under the so-called ‘FusionPlatform’ and a whole world of possibilities opens up. SwitchBot has designed a series of attachments that fit onto this wheeled mounting platform, then essentially serves to wheel the robovac around.
So you can place a tray on it and use it to deliver items to others in your household, or you can mount a phone or tablet and turn it into a mobile tripod. It is also compatible with a fan, air purifier and security camera. That’s about it for the current offering, but SwitchBot seems keen for you to experiment further, highlighting that it can be integrated with custom attachments, 3D printed components and third-party devices.
Read the full story: This robot vacuum cleaner can also bring you a sandwich
3. Small robot legs
Robovacs are becoming more and more capable, but they have always had one ultimate enemy: stairs. Like The Doctor’s greatest enemy, robot vacuum cleaners have remained cruelly confined to just one floor. But Dreame is going to change that. Maybe.
The new Dreame X50 Ultra Complete has small feet with which it can hoist itself over steps. To be clear, these are stairs and not steps: he can climb obstacles up to 4.2 cm high in one go, or 6 cm high in two. Even though it won’t be climbing the Eiffel Tower anytime soon, it’s still a big step up (pun intended) for anyone with a higher-than-usual threshold between rooms.
Clashes with feet feel like the logical conclusion in the growing trend of robovac brands trying to find more effective ways to deal with uneven floors. In September, Roborock released a robovac with quad bike-like suspension, and Shark has one that twerks itself over speed bumps – but Dreame’s approach looks particularly promising.
Read the full story: Eat your heart out Daleks – Dreame’s latest robovac can climb stairs
4. Pop-up navigation pucks
Most leading robot vacuums have a raised central puck, which plays a key role in navigation, giving the bot a more complete view of its surroundings. That’s great, but the downside is that it also adds height, meaning the robot may not be able to get under low-lying furniture, where dust can quickly collect.
Roborock has found a way to solve this problem in its new Saros 10R (an armless sister model to the Saros Z70 that I reviewed above). This robovac has a navigation puck that moves up and down like a periscope. That means it can still use the brand’s proven LDS system for mapping, without limiting where it can clean.
The LDS puck has an additional ToF (time-of-flight) sensor that points upwards to detect vertical distance. When the robot senses that it is entering an area with a lower height, the puck will retract and automatically reappear if the environment allows it. It also features a wide-angle vision module designed to provide enhanced mapping, meaning the bot is less likely to lose its way when the puck is down.
With the puck down, the 10R is just under 3 inches tall. That’s impressively shallow for a robot vacuum, and short enough to bravely venture into the dusty depths beneath most people’s couches.
Read the full story: Roborock’s new robovacs are determined to get under your couch – here’s how
5. Moonwalking Carpet Cleaners
Robot vacuum cleaners typically have less suction than manual vacuum cleaners, meaning they may struggle to suck dust from carpets, especially if they are of the deep pile type.
Narwal has come up with a number of ways to tackle this problem and added them to the upcoming Narwal Flow robot vacuum. When encountering carpet, the Flow will start in the usual way: drive forward and vacuum. Then things get a little jazzier, with the bot backing up, Billie Jeanstyle, along the same section of the floor. This motion should not only target the deep-seated dirt and hair from the opposite direction, but should also help lift the carpet fibers and loosen anything more deeply lodged. I haven’t seen this approach anywhere else and it seems to make particular sense for thick carpets.
It’s not the only carpet-centric feature adorning the Flow. If it’s on carpet, a cover next to the brush roll will come down, creating a slight vacuum (in the non-appliance sense of the word) in the area and increasing suction.
Read the full story: Narwal’s new robovac turns your floors into a moonwalk to get even the thickest carpets clean
6. Clash with surveillance
Robot vacuum cleaners are becoming increasingly intelligent when it comes to correctly identifying objects they encounter and responding appropriately. This is important because it means that if the bot comes across, say, a sofa leg, it will have to vacuum as close to it as possible, but if it comes across your sleeping cat, it will give it a wide berth rather than trying its best to suck. it up.
The Eureka J15 Max Ultra goes one step further because it can see things that are invisible. Or at least transparent.
Previous robot vacuums from this company used something called ‘IntelliView AI’ to handle wet cleaning tasks intelligently. When spilled coffee was encountered, the bot spun around, raised the roller brush to keep it dry, and prioritized mopping to remove the liquid. The only problem arose if you spilled a clear liquid, as the ambient light could confuse the robot’s vision sensors.
However, the new IntelliView AI 2.0 is designed to recognize even transparent spills. It creates two types of views – one using an infrared vision system and another using an FHD vision sensor – simultaneously and in real time. It uses these images to generate a high-definition image of the area, which is not as affected by light variations. The bot then uses AI to identify subtle differences in surface texture and reflections, highlighting all liquids, including clear ones. He then knows how to respond appropriately and clean up the leak.
Read the full story: This new robot vacuum cleaner and mop has eyes so sharp that it can even spot spilled liquids