DJI’s rumoured robot vacuum launches in China – and it has mechanical arms!

The rumoured DJI Romo robot vacuum-mop has finally launched in China, and we finally have insight into its looks, features and pricing – here’s everything you need to know.

Back in June, a photo leak on X showed six packaged DJI Romo robot vacuums that looked to be ready for shipping. Despite the leak, DJI didn’t confirm or deny whether it had made such a product or if it was being shipped or launched. The photo didn’t share too much information either, aside from the rumoured robot vacuum’s name, and a sketch of the vac-mop and its docking station.

But now, we finally have information about the DJI Romo and considering it’s the brand’s first robot vacuum, it looks pretty impressive so far. There are three versions of the DJI Romo – S in classic white, A which is transparent with a white base, and P, a fully transparent vacuum and base.

As far as we know – aside from the design changes – the DJI Romo S, A and P have the same mapping and cleaning technologies. As DJI manufactures the best drones, the DJI Romo has impressive visuals and mapping, including binocular fisheye cameras and a LiDAR system with three wide-angle laser radars.

The cameras and lasers work to detect obstacles as thin as 2mm, and navigate around them. Using AI, the DJI Romo generates floor plans and maps, and the robot vacuum adjusts its cleaning patterns, depending on the room and floor type. The maps can be viewed via the DJI Home app, as well as other notifications like monitoring and scheduling.

At the start of this year, many robot vacuums were emerging with retractable limbs, like the Dreame X50 Ultra Complete that has legs to climb the stairs, and the Roborock Saros Z70 which features a foldable arm that picks up socks. The DJI Romo has done a similar thing with its dual robotic arms that stretch to reach and clean tight spaces and corners. As far as we know, it can’t pick things up or lift itself, but it’s a cool feature all the same.

Let’s move on from mapping and robot arms to the important stuff – cleaning. The DJI Romo has a 25,000Pa suction power, and a dual brush roller that cleans while avoiding tangling. It also mops floors with its 164ml capacity, and the base station has two separate tanks for different cleaning solutions. The base or docking station also recharges the DJI Romo and has a fast charge of just 2.5 hours.

It’s nice to finally see that the rumours were true, although the UK, EU and US will have to wait for the DJI Romo as it’s not expected to launch until later this year – dates and regions are still being kept quiet. But as of writing, the DJI Romo is available in China with prices starting at CNY 4,699.