CES sets the stage for robot vacuum cleaners to reach new heights.

There were plenty of innovations for robot vacuums on the CES show floor this year, from arms and legs to extendable mops, mobile towers and new navigation systems.

As the industry races to find the best way to clean your floors, it can be difficult to see what it can do amidst all the hype. I spent some time in Las Vegas last week to see how much better our robot friends are getting. Take a look at all the new technologies and methods that have come out so far. could do It helps keep your floors sparkling clean.

The main focus of flagship RoboVacs over the past few years has been obstacle avoidance. The addition of an AI-based camera navigation system helped the robot avoid getting caught in socks, slippers, and toys, but it didn’t actually clean all the floors.

The solution: Add a robotic arm to move objects out of the way. Roborock’s Saros Z70 and Dreame concept vacuums with robotic claws on top showed what the robobag can do.

Both companies say they have software that lets you organize your vacuum cleaner in a whole new way by specifying where to place items. Roborock said you’ll be able to designate areas for the robot to place the items it’s cleaning, and Dreame’s concept vacuum cleaner will be able to place certain items, like cat toys next to the cat’s bed or shoes by the front door, in specific places. However, neither of them demonstrated their apps, so we had no idea how this would work.

The biggest limitation of this arm is its weight. Roborock can only pick up light items weighing up to 300g. It is currently programmed for socks, tissues, small towels, and sandals. Dreame says it can hold up to 500 grams of weight. This means it can handle shoes (sneakers up to men’s size 42/9). But only Roborock demonstrated a robot actually picking up anything, and that was just a sock.

Dreamy’s arms look a little stronger. They are bigger and thicker with thicker claws. But I couldn’t touch it. I tried out the Saros Z70’s arm myself, and it felt surprisingly strong, especially considering its thinness.

Dreame’s arms have attachments that Roborock’s arms do not have (yet). Dreame showed off a small toolbox that holds two brushes: a sponge for wet and messy areas and a bristle brush. The idea is that the robot can attach it to its arm and then get into nooks and crannies that the main robot can’t. But I’ve never seen a robot actually do this, so it’s all still just a concept.

Robovac manufacturers are also adding attachments to the other side of the robot. Dreame’s concept vacuum cleaner and the new Ultra X50 have two small legs. In other words, they are small appendages that extend from underneath the body and lift it up.

They do not have articulated legs. They are just small levers that help propel the bot up the stairs, and as it passes over the stairs, the forward momentum of the robot causes it to fall. The benefit here is actually navigating high space transitions rather than stairs. So if there’s a small step between the living room and the kitchen, or a high transition between the bathroom tile floor and the bedroom carpet, this robot should be able to move between the two.

This is mostly just an extension of the chassis lift technology we’ve seen from Roborock, Shark, and many others. Dreame’s X50 Ultra adds up to 6cm more height through technology. Unfortunately, this doesn’t feel like a precursor to actually climbing the stairs I was hoping for. This is still a full chassis redesign and will likely take several years.

A less eye-catching trend at CES involved mopping. Ecovacs, Switchbot and Narwal have all introduced robot vacuums with roller mops that can extend outward to reach corners along baseboards. This is a change from the spinning, vibrating mops that have been popular in previous years.

Roller mops started coming out last year with products like the Eufy Omni S1 Pro and SwitchBot S10, and in my experience they are better than vibrating mops. It has a larger surface area and cleans itself as it goes, so you don’t have to return to the floor as often to clean the mop. However, the current model does not cover all the ground because it cannot reach the edges. Most vibrating mops can extend out from the body. Hopefully the new extendable roller mop will solve this problem.

Ecovac’s model, the Deebot X8 Pro Omni, adds a hot water tank not only to the base station but also to the robot itself. This means that not only can you clean your floors with hot water, but you can also keep your mop clean while it’s running.

Another innovation that caught my eye on the show floor was the Mop Changing Station from Dreame (and its sub-brand Mova). This allows you to assign specific mop pads to specific rooms. The robot returns to its station and replaces the pad, using a new pad for kitchen use, such as cleaning the bathroom. This may help address concerns about cross-contamination. I would like to try this, but my first impression was that a self-cleaning roller mop would be a simpler and more efficient solution.

Another big robotic navigation trend this year is foldable LiDAR towers. Lidar has long been the preferred navigation technology for most robot vacuums, but its cumbersome tower at the top prevents it from getting under low furniture.

Dreame However, we will have to test how well it will work under the bed without a LiDAR tower.

Lidar is also being augmented with more sensors and AI to help robot vacuums better understand your home. The idea here is a bot that can seamlessly navigate around your home and learn about that unwieldy rug tuft in your living room, rather than creating no-go zones to avoid derailing the app.

Roborock showed off its new StarSight navigation technology with the Qrevo Slim at last year’s IFA. At CES, the company announced that it is introducing an advanced version of StarSight in the Saros Z70 and Saros 10R.

According to Roborock, StarSight Autonomous System 2.0 ditches traditional Lidar for a dual-transmitter solid-state Lidar with a 3D time-of-flight sensor for distance sensing and an AI-powered RGB camera for navigation and maneuvering around obstacles. Roborock says StarSight uses more sensors to feed its onboard AI, helping the robot handle more complex floor plans and homes.

While I’ve had a bad experience with the Ecovacs So I’d like to try a more advanced version.

Ultimately, the goal of all these innovations is to provide better floor cleaning with less intervention on our part. All I want is a robot vacuum that can reliably and effectively clean every nook and cranny of my floor without having to vacuum or get it out from under chair legs before operation. From what we saw at CES this week, we’re getting a lot closer to that.