Latest news with #Z70
Business Insider
6 days ago
- Business Insider
The Roborock vacuum robot with a mechanical arm is super cool. I'm certain it's the future, just not yet
The Roborock Saros Z70 robot vacuum and mop expands the cleaning prowess of the best robot vacuums with the addition of a robotic arm alongside its arsenal of sensors and brushes. The idea is that it'll pick up objects in its way and go the extra mile to fully tidy up by actually moving items around. Once you see it in action, the articulating arm is instantly intriguing. It's a potential huge leap forward for robot assistants. After an editor got an early press preview of the Roborock Z70, I spent several weeks with the Z70, putting it through dedicated tests, as well as just letting it perform daily scheduled cleanings. I'm hopeful that its functionality will increase over time, but at the moment, it's strictly a novelty. The exciting potential remains, but the reality is much duller. The robot has a very limited list of items it's allowed to lift and move, including pieces of paper and light slippers. Even within that scope, it didn't always accomplish its tasks. The Z70 is a top-notch vacuum and mop, but its arm is just an added expense that probably won't be helpful to many people just yet. A machine loaded with features and specs The Saros Z70 is wholly feature-complete. Between the adaptive AI cleaning schedules and the video calls you can use the robot for as it does a patrol of the house, it's hard not to be overwhelmed by it. Of course, the elephant in the room is its OmniGrip mechanical arm, which even has an embedded camera and is capable of lifting up to 300 grams. That's 0.66 pounds, or the equivalent of an iPad mini (with cellular). The arm will emerge on its own while vacuuming or mopping, but it can also be activated manually while in its remote control mode if you want to play around with it. The Roborock Z70 retails for $2,599 and is at the tip top of the price spectrum for this category of products. Even without the OmniGrip arm, however, it would still be a high-end product because of all the other tech loaded up inside. It features up to a tremendous 22,000 Pa of suction, a multi-function dock with hot water mop cleaning, an extending brush and pad, and class-leading mapping and navigation sensors. It packs a lot into its compact, 3.14-inch tall frame. So, in addition to knowing where it should and shouldn't go, it can actually fit under more couches and between more chair legs. The unit has a rated 180-minute run time on its quiet mode. In my testing, I got more than 115 minutes with the higher power balanced mode. Observing the battery in real-world use, the battery estimate seems highly accurate. Extrapolating my usage out, the Z70 was averaging about 170 minutes in the higher setting. For times of extended demand, the dock will fast-charge the robot in an advertised 2.5 hours. Mapping and navigation are stellar, helping it avoid bumping into most household items Despite a functional robot arm tucked away into its top, the unit remains compact and nimble. Part of the Z70's ability to scoot through tight spaces like between furniture is its StarSight Autonomous System 2.0. It has forward-facing detection, along with VertiBeam for lateral object avoidance to the side and above. These sensors and cameras help it see 3D depth information and identify more objects, so it knows how to move around household items delicately. On its first mapping, the Z70 instantly created an accurate map of my downstairs rooms. Like other Roborock models, it correctly identified room dividers and even noted things like a table and living room seating. Over the last several years, I've been highly impressed with the cleaning paths Roborock robots take and their general ground coverage. The Z70 is no different in this regard. But from my constant oversight, this year's tech does seem to be at the top of its game. It's highly thorough while remaining efficient. The Roborock app has even added Routines to try to allow you more flexibility in how you clean. One of the recommended options is to clean after a meal. This Routine cleans the kitchen and dining room after the time you set for dinner. Here's what you want to know about a vacuum that has an arm Far and away, the most interesting thing about the Roborock Saros Z70 is its OmniGrip mechanical arm. It can move certain objects out of the way or move them to designated areas. That's the promise, but the reality is much more limited than it initially appears. First, you have to explicitly activate the OmniGrip in the app to turn it on. It won't work by default until you take the step to acknowledge its presence. Secondly, at launch, it's only authorized to pick up tissues, sandals/slippers, and socks — but only certain types of each. So what's the point? Roborock is optimistic that this will help tidy up socks that get left close to closets or tissues that don't quite make it to a trash can. I'm more skeptical. Even if the mechanical arm does gain the ability to pick up new objects in the future via a software up, it ultimately has a physical weight capacity that it can't exceed. It can't go around lifting anything it wants to, including heavy footwear like boots. Plus, there will likely always be some objects like scissors that remain off-limits for safety reasons. Additionally, in regards to safety, there is an emergency shutoff button on the vacuum to stop the arm, and the grip does have a pinch sensor. In terms of the OmniGrip's actual performance, it hasn't been great in my testing. Maybe unsurprisingly, I've needed to manufacture a lot of the testing scenarios because the items it will handle are so limited. I wouldn't have seen it work much, if at all, if I didn't artificially start dropping balls of tissues on the floor. Even when ideal-sized and shaped balls of paper towels were left on the floor in central locations, the results were mixed. Sometimes the robot would pick up one of the tissues and put it in its designated bin, while ignoring the others. I used paper towels, brown packing paper, and bathroom tissue to see if it would identify each of them. Usually, it would take care of one but not the others, with seemingly no logic to which one it handled. The paper towels I left lying flat didn't get any acknowledgment. I also resorted to placing Crocs in the middle of the room, while the Z70 ran its nightly schedule. Doing that usually resulted in one of the clogs being moved to the designated shoe spot while the other one remained untouched. Sometimes the robot would move the sandals out of its way to finish cleaning the area it was assigned to, but then just leave them in a different, inconvenient spot. It's hard not to be disappointed by the results of the OmniGrip mechanical arm. When it works like you assume it will, it's magical. It's easy to see how this functionality will be improved and could spread to be prominent in two to three years. But it's not there yet. It's too limited in nearly every way to be anything but a fun distraction. The Saros Z70 cleaning performance didn't disappoint If you're willing to pay the OmniGrip arm tax, you'll still get a good vacuum and mop. Its side brush and extending mop pad help it pick up crumbs and dirt around chair legs and scrub right up against baseboards. I tested the Z70 on hardwood floors using coffee grounds, flour, and crushed up cereal to see how it vacuumed and mopped up the messes. Using the vacuum and mop on its highest suction level with two passes, it got around 90% of the flour, 90% of the coffee grounds, and 98% of the cereal in a spot, zone cleaning. These results are in line with other high-end robot cleaners. Using the vacuum on carpet with the same simulated spilled food items, the Z70 got an estimated 87% of the flour, 89% of the coffee grounds, and 100% of the crushed up cereal. Again, its results in this area are in line with other premium robots. To see how well the Z70 could get into tough-to-reach areas, I taped off a corner of my room with hardwood floors and sprinkled some flour in the square. The vacuum picked up nearly all of the visible mess. Its corner results were quite remarkable, especially compared to other robots. All of these tests confirmed my general observations of the daily scheduled cleanings I had it doing. It's really good, though not perfect. There were still the occasional crumbs left under the cabinet toe-kicks in the kitchen, but all around the kitchen table, around chair legs, and up against baseboards were free from debris after it finished. The anti-tangle system, a combination of the side and roller brushes, worked well enough that I only saw a few strands of hair from time to time. There was never a collection of hair wrapped up that needed to be cut off. Nearly all of the hair found its way into the dustbin. I don't have a high threshold in my home that I need robot vacuums to cross. However, I do have a mid-to-high pile rug that a lot of vacuums have had a hard time traversing. Thanks to the AdaptiveLift chassis, the Z70 can roll over a threshold as tall as 1.57 inches, which, in my case, made it much easier for the bot to climb onto the carpeted rug and vacuum it without getting stuck. Although the unit can raise itself high off the ground, the Z70 can also detach its mopping pads and leave them behind in the charging dock when doing vacuum-only jobs. This means it won't drag wet pads across the carpet. This isn't a unique feature to Roborock, but one of my favorites that I've come to look for from any premium cleaner. The Z70 isn't the only new vacuum and mop that Roborock released in 2025. It also released the Saros 10R and 10. Putting the 10R through its paces revealed it has a similar performance. It also employs a sleek exterior with a low profile for nimble navigation, along with a FlexiArm side brush and an extending mop pad. Its suction is powerful, and its scrubbing is thorough. The 10 and 10R, varying in minor ways, aren't as flashy as the Z70, but nearly as capable. The bottom line The Roborock Saros Z70 is a great vacuum and mop but not because it has a robotic arm. It performs well at cleaning floors despite its headline feature. The functionality of its arm is just too limited to make it a useful part of the cleaning experience. If the cost doesn't deter you, it's a fine choice with a wow factor that will intrigue anyone who comes across it. But most people in search of a high-powered, premium robot vacuum and mop will find a better value with the Saros 10R.
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Forbes
Roborock Saros Z70 Is Here To Grab Shoes, Socks, Your Wallet
Saros Z70 sports a robotic arm for tidying up Roborock With the launch of the Saros Z70, Roborock's roll out of its robovac evolution is complete. It started back in January with the Saros 10R, which introduced a slimmer, more powerful vacuum that didn't rely on a radar hump. The Saros 10 came after that, a less expensive model that has the ability to lower its LIDAR tower to achieve a similar thin profile when needed. Now the slim profile and StarSight Autonomous System 2.0 are back in the Saros Z70, but with the addition of one very important feature. Yes, your vacuum now has a robot arm. The "Omnigrip Mechanical Arm" is a five-axis robotic arm that folds away into the vacuum when not in use. It can deploy the arm to pick up light obstacles (300g or around 10 oz.) and organize shoes. It can also use the camera in the arm to patrol your home and seek out and monitor pets. The gripper of the arm is surprisingly nimble. I was able to remotely direct it to pick up and carry a slipper back to my closet. I also saw it grabbing sandals around the house…usually on the first try. The operation is fairly plodding but then this is a tiny robot arm packed into a vacuum, speed isn't the main feature. At launch, the Omnigrip arm is an interesting, but not exactly a revolutionary leap. Mostly, the Saros Z70 does what all Roborock vacuums do—it uses its 22,000 Pa suction power and dual-mopping pads to clean your floor. Then, every once in a while, it will deploy the arm to move a shoe or maybe a sock. I say maybe because Roborock has admitted that socks on carpet are extremely difficult to recognize. So difficult, in fact, that they list it as a limitation they won't be trying to overcome. Matic is the only company I know of that's actively tackling this problem and they're only able to do it because they have a wildly different tech stack (but more on them next week). Arm stowed Roborock So socks on carpeting will still likely be avoided entirely instead of being picked up (which is still better than being sucked up and clogging the robovac). However, socks on hard floors the Z70 can identify. I heard the distinctive whirring of the arm operating in my daughter's room, the place where many a robovac is defeated, and was delighted to find the Z70 was busy lifting a balled-up sock out of its way and placing it behind it so it could continue cleaning. As the Z70 got familiar with my home, I started to notice evidence of its tidying all over. Cat toys had been shifted, shoes had been moved to a new spot (though not the spot I'd designated on the map for shoes). While the Omnigrip arm might be used sparingly, the bot puts it to good use, making sure it has a clear path to accomplish its main task, cleaning your floors. Roborock is aware of the limitations of the Z70's Omnigrip arm at launch and is working to improve its utility over the next couple of months. Over the summer the company is adding support for things like sneakers, optimizing sorting routines, and giving users more control over the types of obstacles to identify. In addition to the arm, the Roborock Z70 comes with everything you'd expect from a flagship robovac model. It has more suction than the similarly outfitted Saros 10R, dual mopping pads, a tangle-free roller and side brush, and the ability to lift and boost itself over thresholds. As I mentioned at the top, the Z70 uses Roborock's latest AI algorithm and advanced visual sensors so that it can easily avoid common household obstacles, including things like bundled cords. By ditching LIDAR, the Z70 has an extremely slim profile as well. Able to reach places other bots can't Roborock The app continues to improve as well, using AI pathing to determine the most logical cleaning plans, automatically increasing or decreasing suction and water volume depending on floor type, and automatically washing the mops after it cleans high-dirt areas like bathrooms and kitchens. The app is also where you can remotely control the bot and use the Call & Cruise function for checking on your pet. A fully functional dock is part of the Z70 package Roborock It comes with the latest Multifunctional Dock that adds fast charging, hot mop washing, auto-emptying, and enables the robot to leave the mops behind so as to avoid cross-contamination. Altogether, it makes the Saros Z70 the most advanced robovac the company has produced. But that arm is going to cost you. The Saros Z70 costs $1,000 more than the similar, non-armed Saros 10R. At $2,599, it's one of the most expensive robot vacuums on the market. While it may not achieve the dream of a robotic butler, the Z70 does put its arm to good use and Roborock has dedicated itself to improving functionality over time. You can find out more on the Roborock site.
The Verge
20-05-2025
- The Verge
I tested a robot vacuum with an arm, and my dog may never forgive me
I suspect my dog does not like the Roborock Saros Z70. Unlike the dozens of other robot vacuums that Gus happily lets clean around him while he sleeps, the Z70 keeps stealing his treasures. Not his dog toys — although that could be a future feature — but my family's socks that he loves to collect and carry around the house with him. Since the Z70 arrived, he's had competition. The first robot vacuum with a mechanical arm, the Z70 features a five-axis arm, branded the OmniGrip, that uses onboard sensors and a camera to see, pick up, and tidy away a small list of light items, including the aforementioned socks, footwear such as slippers and sandals, tissues, and paper. In theory, this means I should spend less time picking up after my kids or rummaging in Gus' bed to find the socks he's stolen. In practice, it's nowhere near achieving this goal. Yes, the arm can pick up items and put them away, which is seriously impressive. It collected my son's discarded socks and a few balls of paper, putting them where I asked it to. But the Z70's limitations are deal-breakers at this point, and its lack of consistency also lets it down. For example, while the bot would detect footwear, it nearly always opted not to pick up any shoes, only once retrieving a slipper or sandal of its own volition. It also consistently struggled to place more than one item in the correct spot each time it cleaned. Still, this is the first consumer robot vacuum to venture into appendage territory, and even in this beta-like stage, it's remarkable. But for an eye-watering $2,599, the Saros Z70 needs to pick up more than a few socks. The Saros Z70 is a flagship robot vacuum that's a big step up from my current top pick floor sweeper, the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra. With over twice the suction power, a more advanced navigation and obstacle detection system, and dual spinning mops that it can automatically remove, it's an impressive cleaner. However, aside from the arm, it's essentially the same vacuum as the $1,599.99 Saros 10R that launched with it earlier this year — with a few modifications made to accommodate the mechanism, including a different roller brush and a smaller onboard bin and water tank. For $1,000 less, the 10R is a better bet right now. While cleaning my house, the Saros Z70 used an AI-powered camera on the front of the robot to identify potential pickable objects, then returned to 'sort' them. This process, which was very slow, involved scrutinizing the object for a few moments, then shuffling around, pausing to unfold the arm from the body of the robot, extending it, twisting it horizontally or vertically, and using its pincer grip to grab the item. A camera in the 'hand' sees the item and determines how to pick it up, then a grip sensor measures the weight of the object — 300 grams (0.66 pounds) is the max. Sensors along the arm also detect if anything is in the way, to stop it pinching an object or banging into something. At one point, it tried to pick up a rug tassel, realized it was too heavy, and let it go. When it did manage to pick something up, it'd hoist the object high into the air and triumphantly carry it toward the zone I'd designated in the app. Socks or paper went into a Roborock-provided bin, with about an 80 percent success rate. The robot always dropped stuff, just not always in the bin. Sometimes just alongside it, and once or twice, when it got confused, absolutely nowhere near it. Footwear was supposed to go to the shoe storage area, but it only managed to pick up one sandal during my testing, studiously avoiding the slippers, flip-flops, and Crocs I left strewn around. Even then, it deposited the sandal just outside the shoe storage zone. Roborock suggested trying the manual control option in the app, which gives a live view from the camera on the arm to see if the bot could accurately identify and pick up one of the shoes it had been ignoring. This worked on the flip-flop, with the arm picking it up when directed. It just wouldn't do it autonomously. (Sidenote: The camera in the arm can be used as a roaming home security camera, providing an additional vantage point to the forward-facing one.) The Z70 did a good job with large socks, small fabric toys that looked like socks, and paper, but it didn't like small socks. However, in most cleaning runs, it only picked up one or two items, even if there were half a dozen shoes and socks scattered around. It also can't pick up items on carpet, so those socks my husband slipped off and hid under the coffee table while watching telly will go untidied. Speaking of tables, the arm can't reach under low furniture; if it detects anything above it within 45cm (17.7 inches), it won't deploy its arm. All of this illustrates the technology's promise versus its current reality. The robot uses AI to identify obstacles and determine whether to avoid them (like pet poop), clean around them (like cables), or pick them up. The logs in the app revealed that its success was comparable to that of a preschooler using flashcards. On one run, it identified the black flip-flop as a cable, a piece of paper as a plastic bag, and a brown slipper as pet poop. But on the next run, it picked up the same ball of paper with no issues. The arm is an impressive novelty, but not functional enough to be worth your money Today, the arm is an impressive novelty, but not functional enough to be worth your money. However, the hardware feels solid, and if the software can be improved, it could be very useful. I'm constantly picking up and relocating footwear that my family discards, and having a robot do it reliably would make my life easier, not to mention help with the Monday morning panic when we can't find my daughter's Crocs. If it could pick up larger items like clothes, deal with phone charging cables, and other common household clutter, I'd love to set it loose on my teenage kids' rooms to tidy up before cleaning. Roborock claims to have a slew of updates in the works for the bot, beginning next month, which it says should improve reliability and expand its object repertoire, crucially to heavier items like sneakers. The bot is currently limited to 300 grams (0.66 pounds) but is capable of handling up to 700 grams (1.5 pounds), according to Roborock. Hopefully, this will make the arm more confident when picking up footwear. Currently, it's very specific about what it will collect, largely as a safety feature. It did pick up the occasional small cat toy and stuffed animal, but mostly opted against trying to grasp an item if there was any doubt. Speaking of safety, both Gus and my cat, Boone, tried playing with the arm, and it immediately stopped moving, so I felt confident that they were safe. The arm is also surprisingly sturdy, although I'm not sure it would hold up to 70-pound Gus if he were determined to retrieve a sock. (There is an emergency stop button for the arm should something go wrong.) Arm issues aside, the Saros Z70 excels as a robot vacuum. Its StarSight 2.0 navigation system (a combination of solid-state lidar, 3D sensors, and cameras) navigated smoothly, dodging obstacles and ably avoiding common robot traps thanks to its ability to lift itself up 10mm and cross thresholds of up to 4cm. It's the first robot vacuum I've tested that never once got stuck on my rug, under my sofa, or between my lounge chair's spindly legs. Its 22,000Pa suction power demolished my oatmeal and Cheerio tests, and the dual spinning mop pads efficiently dispatched small spills of milk, juice, and dried ketchup. If you love the latest tech and are willing to pay (a lot) for potential, the Saros Z70 is a fascinating peek into the future — not to mention a fun toy (yes, you can remote control the arm). But if you're happy to pick up your own socks, Roborock's Saros 10R ($1,599.99) offers all the same floor cleaning abilities, minus the arm, for $1,000 less. (The Z70 was initially priced at $1,899.99, but Roborock recently raised it to $2,599 due to tariffs.) Are robotic arms the future of home cleaning? Probably. With the speed of innovation in home robotics, a Rosie the Robot-like autonomous cleaning machine in our homes is starting to feel less like science fiction. Roborock may have shipped the first robot with an autonomous arm, but it won't be the last. For now, the Z70 is an impressive, if flawed, glimpse of what's to come. Data privacy: Saros Z70 Bringing connected devices into your home also brings with it concerns about how the data they collect is protected. The Verge asks each company whose smart home products we review about safeguards it has in place for your data. The primary home data a robot vacuum like the Roborock manages are the maps it generates and video and image data from its onboard cameras. Roborock says that all map / cleaning data is encrypted before being sent to the cloud. Additionally, it says data only leaves the device if you view the map on its smartphone app. Otherwise, it stays locally on the device. The company says a maximum of 20 cleaning maps are stored at any one time, and any maps stored in the cloud are deleted after one year. A factory reset of the robot will remove any locally stored map information. The remote viewing and obstacle photo features are optional, not enabled by default, must be physically enabled on device, and can be turned off in the app. Remote viewing is live-streaming only (no video is recorded or stored). When viewing is enabled, the device collects your 'user ID, network IP address, and video information captured via the camera,' according to Roborock's Privacy Policy for Remote Viewing. This is in addition to Roborock's standard Privacy Policy. Photos of obstacles are governed by an Obstacle Photo Privacy Policy. Roborock says they are encrypted and stored on the robot vacuum and only sent to the cloud if you click on an icon on the map to view the image on your phone. Then it's secured with Transport Layer Security. It will be deleted from the server within three working days and from your phone when you exit the app. The robotic arm requires a camera to function. It is disabled by default and must be manually activated by the user. Once activated, it can be deactivated in the app.
New York Times
20-05-2025
- New York Times
This Robot Vacuum Has a Claw That Tries (and Mostly Fails) to Pick Up Your Socks
The Saros Z70 mostly works like any other robot vacuum-mop combo, sucking up debris and wiping up light grime. But the main attraction is the OmniGrip arm, which promises to grab and sort the type of clutter that robot cleaners, until this point, haven't been able to tidy up on their own. The arm spends most of its time tucked inside the robot, behind a hatch. It's programmed to recognize socks, slippers, small towels, and tissues (that's all, for now), extend the claw, pick up the items, and then drop them off in designated areas. Socks, towels, and tissues go into a cardboard bucket that comes with the robot, and slippers go to another floor-level spot of your choice. Setup took me about 10 minutes. You need to start by sending the robot out on a training run to draw a map of your home's floor plan, a process that's quick and mostly automatic. Then you coach it, through the smartphone app, so that it knows where you've put the sock bin and where you want the slippers to go. Depending on which settings you have enabled, either it'll sort your things as it finds them or you can set it to finish cleaning first and then go on a separate sorting-only run. If it comes across other obstacles, it'll just steer around them. It also has a remote-control mode that lets you peer through the bot's camera, drive up to obstacles, and then tell the claw to do its thing. The claw isn't exactly a piece of heavy-duty precision machinery, but it doesn't strike me as flimsy, either. When it pops out of its hatch, tiny motors whirring, sometimes I stop to marvel at how far robot vacuums have come. Other times it strikes me as cartoonish and over-the-top, and occasionally I shudder, as though I'm gazing upon a techno-dystopian torture device from an H.R. Giger painting. My dog hates it. The Saros Z70 clamps down on socks, tissues, and slippers with a crablike pincer grip and then carries the item to a designated sorting area. Liam McCabe/NYT Wirecutter Down to business: The claw doesn't collect stuff as reliably as advertised. I gave it a few chances to pick up a normal mess that my dog and my 7-year-old leave out on any given day, but it grabbed only about a quarter of the items. If a sock was anywhere near a piece of furniture — as it often is when you live with a first-grader who reflexively tears off their footwear as soon as they plop down on the couch — the Z70 wouldn't even attempt to pick it up. It's probably a good thing that the robot is smart enough not to snap off its own appendage while driving under a coffee table. But even when I carefully staged a bunch of socks and slippers that didn't seem like they would cause the Z70 any obvious problems, it still worked only about half as often as I thought it should. It didn't accurately identify every piece of detritus, even from its approved-item list. One of my black socks blended in with my navy blue rug, and the Z70 couldn't spot the sock. A Roborock representative told us that the vision system struggles to spot objects on dark carpets in general. The vision system later mistook that same sock for a dog turd, even though it was on a bare wood floor that time. It didn't register my slippers at all. The AI vision system on the Saros Z70 sometimes misidentifies objects, like when it thought my black ankle sock was dog poop (left). You need to spend at least a few minutes coaching the robot through the rich but busy smartphone app (center) to take advantage of all the features. Most of the time, it offers tips along the way (right). Liam McCabe/NYT Wirecutter Then again, it did pick up a Birkenstock sandal, which I guess it had pegged as a slipper (it must be hard to train AI on those subtle differences). It's a positive sign that the arm is strong enough to handle that much weight, and I was impressed when the bot set the sandal down exactly where I had coached it to. The other half of the Birkenstock pair wasn't so lucky, though; it sat sole-side up on the floor, and the Z70 stared at it for a second and then left without attempting to lift it. Sometimes, when the Z70 did identify a sock correctly, the arm just couldn't quite grab it. Considering the slew of cameras and sensors built into the arm and the main chassis, you'd think it would find the right angle, but it's not there yet. The Z70 was also way too conservative around furniture and fixtures for my tastes. It wouldn't even try to pick up socks that were within a foot of my TV stand or toilet, and it balked at grabbing a sock under my dining room table, where there's ample height for the arm to do its thing. Then there are other obstacles that it should have steered clear of but didn't. It promptly tried to pick up a sock next to my dog's wire playpen — and ended up hooking itself to one of the crossbars and not letting go until the front of the bot had risen a few inches off the floor. Occasionally, it just looked lost, twitching in place with its claw hanging out, calling out 'sorting items, sorting items' over and over for about a minute at inconsistent intervals, before retracting its arm and moving on. Here's the claw cavity inside the Saros Z70. It doesn't feel like cheap machinery, though it's not exactly heavy-duty, either. Liam McCabe/NYT Wirecutter I tested it for about three weeks. It remains to be seen whether the claw will hold up over time, what with all its moving parts and all the crevices where dust and grit can gather. My sense is that these robots are not easy to repair. When I've spoken to Roborock representatives about the durability and repairability of the company's products in the past, they've told me that it doesn't plan to offer major replacement parts because it expects customers to upgrade every three years or so anyway. The Z70's arm is very much a work in progress, and Roborock has a big challenge on its hands. Getting the arm tuned correctly, across all the image recognition, mechanical engineering, and choices about risk management and bot behavior, will be quite a feat of engineering. And the solution probably won't come to this first-generation model: In an email, a representative from Roborock said that the company probably won't be able to solve some of the pickup and image-recognition problems with software updates alone. For now, it falls well short of being Roborock's promised panacea for all your floor-level messes. You shouldn't count on Roborock (or any company) to catch up with its promises through software updates over time. It might — but I've seen too many examples of gadget makers not delivering on their promised improvements to navigation systems and other features.
