- Roborock Saros Rover is a robotic vacuum cleaner with long legs that moves independently
- The bot can jump, turn quickly and tackle all kinds of uneven floors (including stairs)
- It is a real product under development, with the prototype being shown at CES 2026
Over the past year we’ve seen a handful of robot vacuums with ‘legs’, but Roborock’s new Saros Rover makes the likes of the Dreame X50 Ultra look downright crippled, thanks to hinged stilts that can operate independently. I just saw a prototype at CES 2026 and it’s something to behold. TechRadar editor-at-large Lance Ulanoff was treated to a demo yesterday and had this to say:
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“In person, the Rover is impressive. It’s bigger than a traditional robot vacuum cleaner, but not so much that it wouldn’t fit in your living room. I watched it methodically and carefully approach a staircase, then extend its robot legs and mount the first step. It can even turn on a step to cover the entire width. I was more surprised at how nimbly it can rock, jump and almost play on the ground.”
What are those legs really for? Roborock says the possibilities are almost limitless. Of course there are stairs. (Dreame and Eufy both have stair bots on the way, though they look and function very differently from Saros’s Rover — not least because the stair-climbing part is a separate module to the robovac itself.)
Roborock says Saros Rover will be able to tackle not just straight stairs, but any shape – including spirals. And unlike other bots on the market, it cleans each step as it goes, so you don’t have to walk around with a stick vacuum later.
It will also be able to tackle uneven or sloping terrain in general. So not just jumping over higher than usual room thresholds, but real multi-level dwellings.
Beyond that, however, Roborock says it can ‘mimic human mobility’. So it can perform small jumps, stop suddenly, and turn and duck with agility, all while keeping the main body of the robovac level.
I saw a video of two Roborock engineers throwing tennis balls at one while Rover tried to avoid them. I’m not entirely sure what purpose this will serve—unless we’re about to see our first all-robovac dodgeball team—but I’m excited to find out.
The version at CES is a prototype—Lance says, “It was clear it’s not finished; engineers seemed to spend a lot of time debugging and getting routines to work just right”—but Roborock insists it will be a real product that will hit the market.
I tested last year’s arm-equipped Roborock Saros Z70, and I think it may have gone on sale too early, so I’m glad to see the brand taking its time with this one. I watch with interest.
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