Roborock Gives Its Saros Z70 Robotic Vacuum a Hand — Quite Literally
Fold-out five-axis arm coupled with object recognition capabilities give this new robo-vac a leg — or arm — up over the competition.
Home robotics specialist Roborock is looking to get a leg — or an arm — up in the robot vacuum market with the unveiling of the Saros Z70, its first to include a five-axis mechanical arm mounted on its top.
"Saros Z70 [is] the first mass-produced robotic vacuum with a foldable five-axis mechanical arm for an elevated cleaning experience," the company claims of its latest robo-vac design. "This innovative arm allows the Saros Z70 to move obstacles out of the way and clean areas previous blocked. It performs simple household tasks and even serves as a companion, all while maintaining Roborock's pioneering features in an industry-leading, ultra-thin 7.98cm [around 3.14"] design."
At first glance, the Saros Z70 looks like any other robotic vacuum: it includes main and side brushes, a claimed 22,000Pa suction power, a dual mop for wet cleaning, and a dock that recharges the robot while emptying its waste container and washing the mop pads. A flap on the top of the machine, though, stands out — particularly when it opens to reveal a fold-out robot arm, which the company says can not only move obstacles out of the way but even recognize and categorize them in order to move them to their appointed locations.
This latter feature, Roborock says, is already capable of recognizing socks, sandals, crumpled tissues, and towels, prompting the arm to lift any items it founds out of their regular place — and that weigh less than 300g (around 10.5oz) — and move them closer to where they belong, or in the case of tissues into the nearest trash can. Future firmware updates will bring additional object recognition capabilities, the company claims, while the robot's companion app allows for up to 50 custom objects to be defined.
Other features on the Saros Z70 include on-device voice recognition capabilities for vocal commands, a "video call" feature with manual remote control, pet and pet area recognition and find-the-pet mode, and planned support for the Matter smart home standard — which, like the additional object recognition capabilities, is promised to arrive "through an upcoming OTA [Over The Air firmware update."
More information on the Saros Z70, which the company is to demonstrate at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, is available on the Roborock website.