Roborock combines technology with problem-solving to give you your time back

Roborock is one of the biggest names in smart home maintenance, from robot vacuums to lawnmowers. This year, it added pool cleaners to its armoury, providing the same automated cleaning for your pool that it offers on your carpets, wooden floors and lawns.

Its products have proved hugely popular with customers around the world, and it continues to innovate, with features such as a mechanical arm for picking up obstacles and legs for climbing stairs. Today it offers a complete solution for your home, to clean or maintain inside and out.

I spoke with Clarbi Lu, Product Manager at Roborock, to discover the company’s ambitions, future outlook and what makes its products stand out from the crowd.

Giving you time back

Roborock’s core mission is to solve problems and elevate the cleaning experience. By automating those cleaning tasks, inside and out, it aims to give you back your free time so you can use it more productively.

“If there were no robots, you'd have to vacuum or mop the floor by yourself, mow the lawn yourself, and if you have a pool, you have to clean it by yourself, says Lu. “What we do is free your hands, giving you back the time for your hobbies or so that you can enjoy the time with your loved ones.”

Rather than focusing on the competition, Roborock focuses on solving user problems in the tasks they need to perform around the house. It does this by observing those pain points and finding simple solutions, like in its latest ultra-slim roller mop, the Qrevo Edge 2 Flow.

“In our wet and dry vacuums, we have assisted wheels that can detect your movement,” says Lu. So while you are pushing it forward, it assists you in going forward and when you pull it back, it provides a force backwards.”

The devices also feature a scraper that’s automatically lowered when it detects movement to work as a squeegee and avoid water marks. “This might not be like rocket science or revolutionary, but we really focus on every detail that disturbs users, and solve that problem,” says Lu.

Robot vacuums are still quite a new addition to the home, but users are already seeing the benefits over a regular vacuum. When it comes to robot lawn mowers, there’s an easier adoption, especially for those with robot vacuums, as it follows a similar idea – to save you time.

“With a robotic vacuum, you need a docking station for maintenance, but with robot lawn mowers, the grass which has been cut can be used to fertilise your yard,” says Lu. “There’s also been a development curve for the industry. Just one or two years ago, you had to physically draw boundaries for the lawnmowers, but now, it's all wireless.”

Devices like the RockNeo Q2 LiDAR lawnmower have taken a lot of the technology from Roborock’s vacuum range. The mapping, navigation and obstacle recognition are all transferable, as is the app and user interface, so users of the vacuums will feel right at home.

The future of smart cleaning

Roborock has been at the forefront of new technology when it comes to robot vacuums. Two years ago it introduced the Saros Z70 with a robot arm to move obstacles like stray socks out of the path of the vacuum cleaner. And this year it showcased in Europe for the first time the Saros Rover with legs, so that it can climb stairs.

“People really love the legs,” says Lu. “Customers have been longing for a robot that can climb stairs for years.”

Meaningful innovations are key for Roborock, features that focus on users’ needs rather than just to show off. Whether it’s those new users who have seen friends with one of the Roborock vacuums, or if they’re existing users looking to upgrade, the ability for these devices to solve their problems is key.

While mapping and navigation is now really impressive on all Roborock devices, Lu believes there’s still great potential for it to get even better. “We have plenty of new technology in our vacuums, but there are still things we’re working on,” says Lu. “Dealing with pet waste or complex environments, like loose wires, for instance.”

On the Saros Z70, the robotic arm also features a camera, which functions when the arm elevates or is in operation. By using this new angle, the vacuum is able to observe and analyse the obstacle from a new angle.

Roborock Saros 20 Neo

The Saros 20 Neo was unveiled at the IFA show in Berlin this month and is the latest in robot vacuum technology. Part of the wider Saros 20 series, it has been especially tailored to homes with more complex floor layouts and has the ability to climb over tough thresholds thanks to its AdaptLift Chassis 3.0.

“It's the model with our most advanced technology, and it actually fits almost every scenario in your house,” says Lu. “If there are thresholds between your rooms, it can elevate to get across that threshold. It can also automatically mop and then go back using a really high temperature of water and dry itself.”

The vacuum also offers Roborock’s most advanced navigation system to date, with superior obstacle avoidance. “It’s perfect if you have a complex environment and you really want something that's worry-free,” says Lu.

When creating a new product, Roborock spends a large amount of time on user analysis to discover what the pain points are that are not addressed by the current products, while also investing a great deal of time on research and development to stay ahead on technology. “We do have technologies in our stock. Something might not be commercial right now, but it may be in the future. It's like a puzzle,” says Lu.

The important part is that in solving one problem, you don’t want to introduce another. For instance, if a technology is better but it would make the device bigger or heavier, it might not be the best option. So, it might be a better option to wait until they can offset that change through other technological advances.

Creating the right product is often a balance between form and function, and that’s something that Roborock considers at every stage of development. “We're continuously moving ahead and trying to solve all these problems one by one,” says Lu.

Future Outlook

AI is shaping some big changes across technology right now, and it is also having an impact on the world of home cleaning and maintenance. The advancement of AI is allowing Roborock to develop even greater technologies for its devices, from navigation to lag times, and fundamentally solving problems.

“Our company's philosophy is that we are really user-centric, but at the same time we are technology-driven,” says Lu. “Technology itself is a tool, but it's such a powerful tool that we can solve the users' problems really efficiently.”

So what’s the future for our so-called maintenance robots, the ones that clean our floors, mow our lawns and keep our pools sparkling? While humanoid robots could in theory take on multiple tasks around the house, it’s still these function-specific robots, like the robot vacuums, pool cleaners and mowers, that will continue to rule the roost.

“Humanoid robots require a really complex feedback system and complex decision-making system,” says Lu. “So while in the future it could take on these maintenance tasks, more practically speaking, function-specific robots are the best choices.”

Roborock announced the first product in its pool-cleaning line at IFA, the RockAqua P1. This intelligent pool cleaning robot can clean the pool floor, sides and waterline, plus it can operate in just 15cm of water for those shallow sections.

The Roborock Saros 20 Neo is available now via Amazon UK or the Roborock online store, priced at £999 with a limited-time offer until 20 Sept, including an additional 480ml cleaning solution. The Roborock Qrevo Edge 2 Flow Roller Mop is £799. Prices and availability for the RockAqua P1 pool cleaner are still to be confirmed.