For the second year in a row, Roborock was the talk of CES in Las Vegas. At the 2025 show, the Saros Z70 wowed with the world’s first robot vacuum with a mechanical arm to clear obstacles from its path. This year, crowds flocked to the Roborock booth to see the new Saros Rover, the world’s first robot vacuum with wheel-legs, which the Rover uses to conquer the most unique indoor terrain, from climbing stairs to rolling down slopes.
These impressive robotic feats with arms and legs make Roborock’s vacuums crowd-pleasers at CES: they’re cool to watch and unlike anything else on the market. But their less visible tech is arguably even more important. The Saros Z70 and the Saros Rover represent the culmination of Roborock’s decade-long journey to fuse robotics and AI for seamless, perceptive intelligence that goes far beyond simple navigation and obstacle avoidance.
“We not only re-invest around 8% of our yearly revenue in R&D, but we have also been deeply committed to AI for around a decade, way before language models became mainstream talk,” Roborock president Quan Gang says. “Our specialized team of AI researchers have spent years looking into how AI can empower cleaning, and several pieces of software have proven great success in the navigation department. As impressive as they are, the Saros Z70 and the Saros Rover are still a toddler step. The future of AI applications, combined with robotics, for the purpose of cleaning, is exciting and limitless.
With Roborock also unveiling a new line of robotic lawn mowers and highlighting a major partnership with Real Madrid, CES 2026 marked their transformation from the world’s top-selling robot vacuum brand to an industry leader in AI robotics for smart home cleaning, inside and out.
Saros Z70 and Saros Rover: intelligent breakthroughs for everyday problems
Over the past two years, Roborock’s robot vacuums have evolved from familiar, disc-shaped devices to intelligent home assistants that actively take charge of their environment. Unlike humanoid robots that look futuristic but have little practical functionality, Roborock keeps its robotics firmly grounded in everyday problem-solving that frees you to live your best life.
The Saros Z70, last year’s show-stopper at CES and unanimous winner of CNET’s Best of CES award for home tech, is the first-ever mass-produced robot vacuum with a robotic arm. Working with Roborock’s AI navigation and object-recognition technology, the Z70 picks up socks, slippers and other objects that might be strewn on the floor and places them in a designated spot before it cleans. This AI robotics breakthrough solves one of the biggest practical problems many robot vacs still face – how to respond to stray objects in their path – and automates one of the last remaining manual requirements of floor cleaning.
“Robotic modules can be found in the supply chain with a fairly good quality standard,” Gang says. “However, without a brain, the robotic arm in the Saros Z70 or the robotic legs of the Saros Rover are just metal pieces. Roborock is fully committed to building the best AI algorithm for the present, and future of home cleaning robotics. No matter what components future robots may have – arms, legs, or any kind of mopping system – Roborock is building the most robust stack of cleaning-related AI algorithm and systems.”
And indeed, at CES 2026, the reveal was even bigger: The new Saros Rover introduces the world’s first wheel-leg architecture on a robot vacuum, making it the first to be able handle not just a small threshold but real stairs. Like other Roborock models, the Rover uses 3D spatial sensors and AI algorithms to actually seeits environment and adapt its behavior, and its wheel-legs can confidently climb even an old-fashioned curved staircase, cleaning each step along the way. The complexity of its perception technology is visible in its confident, controlled movement: The Rover impressed CES attendees not just by mounting stairs and sailing down ramps, but by dancing, jumping and swaying side to side on its wheel-legs. It also impressed CNET’s editors, winning a Best of CES award for Roborock for the second year in a row.
Seamless spatial intelligence across Roborock vacuum models
Roborock’s robotics breakthroughs build on a decade of pioneering navigation technology and adaptive AI learning. Roborock’s use of LiDAR (light detection and ranging) made a technology more common on self-driving cars an increasingly standard feature of robot vacuums.
The StarSight Autonomous system, available across recent Roborock models, uses data from structured-3D light sensors and an RGB camera, along with AI algorithms, for human-like obstacle understanding and route planning. It recognizes over 200 common objects and understands when it can safely roll over a cord or whether it should steer clear. Other models that feature the StarSight technology include the Saros line, the Qrevo CurvX and the S8 VMax Ultra.
This seamless combination of perception hardware and AI enables Roborock vacuums to intelligently adapt to floor types and dirt patterns in your home. SmartPlan technology analyzes previous runs over time to boost suction or water where floors are typically dirtier. It reduces power in low-traffic areas, and can schedule mop pad washing after messy zones like kitchens and bathrooms. On each run, the DirTect system uses sensors and AI to judge how dirty the floors are and trigger a re-wash when necessary. CarpetBoost automatically detects carpet types and either increases suction or performs a second, checkerboard deep-clean pattern on rugs.
Roborock AI perception and navigation go outside
Visitors to Roborock’s CES booth didn’t just see the dancing, stair-climbing Saros Rover; they also saw a new family of vehicles charging up slopes and making hairpin turns on a green turf course. Roborock’s new autonomous lawn mowers bring Roborock’s decade of AI navigation expertise to the much more varied and unpredictable outdoors in the North American market.
Designed for different use cases, the two flagship models share a common philosophy: Autonomous machines should adapt to real terrain, not require homeowners to simplify it. The RockMow X1 targets large, challenging properties with four-wheel drive, active steering, dynamic suspension and RTK-assisted navigation for centimeter-level precision, while the RockMow X1 LiDAR is built for intricate gardens, using 360-degree LiDAR and vision-LiDAR fusion to map and navigate without perimeter wires or satellite dependence.
Together, they show how Roborock is translating its AI-driven understanding of space, surfaces and obstacles, honed on robot vacuums, into a broader vision of intelligent, autonomous maintenance.
Roborock and Real Madrid: “The Greatest Meeting the Greatest”
Roborock also underscored their evolution from bestselling vacuum brand to AI robotics leader at CES by announcing a landmark partnership with Real Madrid, one of the most successful and recognizable sports institutions in the world.
Under the theme “The Greatest Meeting the Greatest,” the multi-year collaboration reflects a shared ethos of precision, performance and relentless improvement. As Real Madrid’s official global partner in the cleaning vacuum category, Roborock gains a global stage that reaches hundreds of millions of fans, while bringing its vision of “real smart cleaning” from the home to the pitch through joint activations, stadium presence at the Bernabéu and immersive fan experiences. They’re already the No. 1 global robot vacuum brand, now serving over 22 million households in over 170 countries, as measured by International Data Corporation. Their partnership with Real Madrid highlights that they’re now a global AI robotics company with the confidence to stand alongside a club synonymous with sustained excellence.
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