The manufacturers of robot vacuum cleaners do not lack imagination to create a buzz at CES 2025. Not content with offering ever more intelligent and autonomous machines for cleaning our interiors, they are choosing to enhance them with new functionalities. completely unexpected. Superfluous or essential? 20 Minutes tours the stands and reveals these sometimes surprising innovations to you.
Climb the stairs… or almost
It won’t go up or down steps on its own, but the new Dreame X50 Ultra robot vacuum cleaner and mop will still be able to climb small obstacles.
Thanks to its system called ProLeap, the robot with a suction power of 20,000 Pa (which is a lot) can thus “step over” threshold bars, horizontal table or chair legs, etc. With a constraint: 6 cm in height and 1.8 cm in width. Which can be enough in many interiors.
The secret of the X50 Ultra: two retractable robotic legs that lift its chassis in front of the obstacle. Here, nothing to do with the concept of the aptly named Ascender from MIGO Robotics unveiled a year ago: this vacuum robot could climb stairs! To be developed through a campaign of crowdfunding on Kickstarter (where the project raised $2.4 million), Ascender will ultimately not see the light of day. MIGO Robotics has thrown in the towel (and refunded contributors).
Another advantage of the Dreame X50 Ultra: its LiDAR is retractable. This assumes that facing the sofa or dresser under which other robot vacuum cleaners cannot venture, the X50 Ultra will automatically “put away” its mapping module to slide under the furniture up to 8.9 cm high, and fulfill his duty. Clever!
The X50 Ultra should be presented to the French press on January 14, which augurs its imminent launch in France. It remains to be seen at what price.
Playing as a patrolman inside
But at CES in Las Vegas, the prize for… WTF? could come back to SwitchBot and Roborock, two Chinese manufacturers who really dared everything!
With its K20 + Pro, SwitchBot is launching the first multitasking robot vacuum cleaner. The manufacturer is taking advantage of the electronics show to unveil an accessory in the form of a wheeled table, which allows the new robot vacuum cleaner to transport small loads of up to 8 kg. Named FusionPlatform, this modular base works a bit like the roof rack of a car.
It fits on top of the vacuum cleaner and allows you to transport almost anything. And to optimize the use of its K20 + Pro, SwitchBot has already thought of everything.
The vacuum cleaner/FusionPlatform hitch allows you to associate it with a surveillance camera that can be moved remotely from an application. Thus the K20 + Pro will transform into a patrol boat (this concept was initiated by LG many years ago…). It will also be possible to place an air purifier on top to neutralize allergens from room to room, or a fan to successively cool the different rooms of the house. Better: thanks to a dedicated tablet, the SwitchBot vacuum robot can bring you breakfast in bed…
If considering this type of new application may still seem difficult, we would like to believe that avenues for new developments for robot vacuum cleaners can be explored to optimize their use.
Our articles on CES 2025
Grab items to put them away
The one, obviously already very accomplished, unveiled by Roborock at CES will not leave anyone indifferent. With its Saros Z70 with a power of 22,000 Pa (which is a lot, a lot), the manufacturer is launching the first vacuum cleaner-robot-scrubber equipped with an extractable arm!
As soon as an obstacle appears in its path, the five-axis articulated arm hidden under its hood is extracted. It then unfolds to grab the object and move it using pliers. Better: the vacuum cleaner is then able to store it in a dedicated bin!
Of course, AI is there. Trained to recognize up to 108 different obstacles (socks, cables, etc.), the Saros Z70 will identify most of those that may be lying around on the floor and which it will also be able to move… as long as they do not weigh more than 300 grams, which constitutes its limit.
Some, having already seen the arm called OmniGrip of the Saros Z70 in action, say that it works well… but that it is a little slow. It would take about a minute for it to perform a manipulation. Note that the manufacturer Dreame is also taking advantage of CES to unveil a similar technology, called Bionic Multi-Joint. This time, the key is moving objects up to 400 grams!
Too bad for teenagers who won’t be able to immediately count on these aspis to put their room in their place… they are still only prototypes steeped in good intentions!
