Cutting-edge robot vacuums revealed by Roomba and Roborock to shake up your next household clean

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Two of the biggest robot vacuum brands have just unleashed new models to revolutionise your next spring-clean.

These autonomous 'bots rely on sensors to clean floors around your home with minimal — if any — intervention from you. You can set up these household droids on a schedule, or use a hands-free device like an Amazon Echo to dispatch them to deal with a mess.

At the IFA consumer technology showcase in Berlin, iRobot and Roborock — brands known for offering some of the best robot vacuums — announced all-new models.

First up, iRobot showed up with the Roomba Duo — a robot vacuum system where a main unit actually carries a smaller companion robot on its back and drops it off to clean hard-to-reach spots. It's essentially a two-in-one device.

Meanwhile, Roborock brought its Saros Rover to Europe for the first time, which is designed to clean your stairs. It's built with a wheel-leg design, letting it step up and down individual treads rather than being stuck on flat floors.

Both vacuums are meant to tackle the same basic problem — covering areas traditional vacuums can't reach in your home. These two take very different approaches to solving this.

For instance, the Roomba Duo's main robot has a mechanical arm mounted on top that stays level as it moves, keeping the smaller robot stable while it's being carried. Once the system spots a tight gap the big unit can't squeeze into, it gently lowers and releases its companion to get the job done.

The main robot itself is shaped like a cylinder, which gives it more room inside for a proper wet-and-dry floor-washing system, a powerful motor, and a large battery. This is similar to a premium mopping system that drives itself.

Before scrubbing, it produces steam to soften dried-on messes — things like pasta sauce or cooking grease — without blasting your floors with too much heat. Its 60mm roller mop then presses down with 46N of force (roughly 4.7kg), scrubbing about as hard as you would by hand. A hot-air dryer behind the roller then dries the surface, which is especially handy for protecting wooden floors.

The companion robot is actually iRobot's Roomba Plus 575 Combo, which came out earlier this year. At just 8.35cm tall and 29.8cm wide, it slips under low beds, sofas and TV cabinets where dust loves to hide.

It offers a neat trick, too — its PerfectEdge mop pad pushes out by up to 31mm, letting it clean right into corners, along walls and around awkward edges. A side brush that extends further out helps sweep up pet hair and crumbs from baseboards.

Getting stuck on door thresholds shouldn't be an issue either, as air-lift omni-wheels let it climb over bumps up to 3.5cm high.

Both robots share a map of your home and talk to each other in real time using Artificial Intelligence (AI), coordinating who cleans what. Their shared AutoWash dock handles everything from washing and drying the mops to emptying dust into a bag that lasts months.

iRobot's CEO Hao Li said: "Every breakthrough starts with someone willing to imagine what others can't — to challenge what's expected, and to build what doesn't yet exist. That conviction led us somewhere completely new. Instead of asking one robot to do everything, we've built specialized robots that work together as a single intelligent system — because that's what it takes to truly transform life at home."

On the other hand, Roborock's Saros Rover — first unveiled in the US earlier this year — takes its inspiration from how humans move, using independently adjustable legs instead of standard wheels. Those legs let it raise and lower its body, make small jumps, and handle slopes that would leave ordinary robot vacuums stranded.

It uses motion sensors and 3D spatial data to climb stairs, cleaning each step as it goes. This is a first for robot vacuums and opens up a whole new part of the home that always needed manual hoovering.

Ricky Ma, President of Europe and the Americas at Roborock, said: "Our mission is to give people more time for what matters by making everyday maintenance simpler and more autonomous.

"Rocking Life With You means creating technology that adapts to the real, dynamic moments of everyday life. The Saros 20 Neo brings many of the advanced features and experiences of our flagship Saros family to UK and Irish households at a more approachable price point. As we extend intelligent cleaning from indoors to gardens and pools, we are bringing more of the work into the background, helping people spend less time on maintenance and more time living.”

Additionally, the company showed the Saros 20 Flow Complete, which packs powerful 36,000Pa suction, a roller mop for tackling dirt and spills, and a smart chassis that can climb thresholds up to 8.8cm high.

Unlike traditional handheld vacuums, it's also meant to squeeze under low furniture while using LiDAR and 3D obstacle detection to map your home and avoid getting stuck.

Roborock also announced the Saros 20 Neo, built for homes with tricky layouts. It crosses the same double-layer thresholds up to 8.8cm high as the Flow Complete, fits under furniture as low as 7.95cm, and its AI can recognise more than 300 types of obstacles. It also boasts 36,000 Pa of suction and a battery covering nearly 350 square metres.