This Robot Vacuum Picks Up Socks So You Don’t Have To

The first robot vacuum with a robotic arm is now available for pre-order.

Up until now, robot vacuums have been iterating on the same theme — small pucks that cruise around the floor, doing their best to clean while avoiding obstacles, getting over rugs, and getting under couches. They’ve gotten a lot better since the early years, but the basics haven’t changed much. AI and robotics, on the other hand, have been making enormous leaps forward, and with the Roborock Saros Z70 robot vacuum, a first-of-its-kind, we’re finally seeing how those new technologies can be used to take home robotics into the future.

By combining AI with the first-of-its-kind OmniGrip robotic arm, the Saros Z70 does more than any other robot vacuum before it, and it might just be getting started.

Using robotics to expand what a robot vacuum can be

First unveiled at CES 2025, if you watched the Roborock Saros Z70 in action, the OmniGrip robotic arm will be what immediately grabs your attention. It’s a fully articulated robot arm that can extend from the top of the robot, flexing and rotating as necessary to grab household objects left in the vacuum’s path.

An errant sock on the ground would cause older robot vacuums to change course — the Saros Z70 can grab and move that sock, either to the side or to a space in the room designated for objects left on the floor.

Sounds simple enough, right? Turns out, a lot of AI and robotics expertise was needed to get this far. To pick up and move an object, the robot has to do a lot of thinking — it needs to recognize an obstacle is present, decide what that object is, define its contours, and estimate its weight. Only then can the robot know that it’s capable of grasping and moving the object — while the future may hold greater things, for now, the OmniGrip arm can only grab and move light objects like socks, tissues, and sandals.

Those are just the challenges on the AI side — you then need advanced enough robotics to grip an object, pick it up, and drop it where it needs to go. That means the claw needs to move finely enough to feel the contours of the object and grip it tightly enough so that the object doesn’t fall out like it’s in a claw machine game at the arcade.

From robot vacuum to home assistant

The Saros Z70 is capable of all of the above, but that’s just the beginning. As AI-powered object recognition improves, robots will be better able to recognize more categories of objects and interact with them accordingly. On the hardware side, robotic arms will become more robust and efficient, allowing them to grasp and move heavier objects.

That makes the Saros Z70 part of a push into all-in-one home robots. After all, if your robot vacuum already has a robot arm, why can’t it open a refrigerator door and grab a drink for you? Or load the dishwasher? All of those tasks are more complex, and will require their own technological leaps, but the Saros Z70 is opening the door to that future.

A mastery of the fundamentals

That’s all very exciting stuff conceptually, but here in the present day, you probably want to make sure that your robot vacuum does its core job as well as it possibly can. While the OmniGrip robotic arm is exciting, Roborock hasn’t neglected the basics on the Saros Z70.

The Saros Z70 can operate as both a vacuum and mop, using high-powered suction and hot water to get both carpet and hard surfaces clean. On either kind of surface, the Saros Z70 can detect particularly dirty spots that need extra time and effort, making extra passes if needed. It can attack corners with extendable brushes that sweep dirt into the suction area of the vacuum or scrub hard floors clean. And, if you want to keep your carpet dry, you can even have the Saros Z70 leave the mopping gear in the docking station to ensure a dry vacuum.

The Saros Z70 will be able to use all those features as efficiently as possible thanks to advanced mapping. It’s not just about obstacle detection — using cameras and 3D Time of Flight (ToF) sensors, the robot can make advanced maps of the rooms in your home, detecting how long it will take to clean each room and how much space it has between objects in the room. Instead of running into obstacles while vacuuming, the robot knows what’s in each room from the beginning and is able to plan an efficient route that cleans as much as possible — no bouncing off obstacles and missing whole sections of the room. It’s able to roll with a redesign, too — rearrange a room, and the Saros Z70 will detect the changes next time it goes out and adjust its maps accordingly.

When it’s done cleaning, the Saros Z70 returns to its docking station, where it can clean its vacuum and mop brushes and empty the dust canister, leaving you with as few maintenance tasks as possible.

Perfect for the present, ready for the future

Roborock has refined existing robot vacuum technology while adding AI and robotics that push the world of robotics forward — and they’ve put it in a sleek package that looks great in any home. Every detail has been considered to make the Saros Z70 a home assistant that will be with you for many years to come. And, as AI gets smarter, there’s no telling how much more it’ll be capable of over those years.

Roborock plans to enable the robot to detect and move more categories of objects with the OmniGrip robot arm, and we’re excited to see what kind of new tasks they can think of to make this robot vacuum a true all-in-one home assistant.

We’ll have a full review of the Saros Z70 live soon, where we share our experience with this first-of-its-kind device.

Pre-order

Ultimately, the Saros Z70 is the most exciting robot vacuum we’ve seen in a long time, and it’s finally ready to come stateside. You can pre-order the Saros Z70 now at Roborock.com for $1,999. The Saros Z70 will be available to ship starting May 5.