It seems that the great robot vacuum manufacturers gathered and decided that what we really need is a bot with a mechanical arm. One that can move the disorder out of your path as it cleanses, and even order your disorder and relocate it to where you need to go. We saw some robot vacuum cleaners equipped on the arm in this year’s CES, the event in which everyone shows their next releases, but Roborock surprised everyone by announcing that their own model was not only in the strange stage of invention, in reality it would actually be on sale within the year.
Fast advance for a few months, and Saros Z70 is now available to buy. So, does it fulfill its potential or did Roborock run before the technology is ready? Is this innovative bot ready to compete with the rest of the best robots vacuum cleaners on the market? I have spent the last two weeks testing it: you can get the low plane in my Roborock Saros Z70 review.
While it is not perfect, there are many great things about it, including some that surprised me. Keep reading for 3 things that I loved with this practical robovac, plus 3 that I think still needs work if it will be really useful.
3 things I loved
1. The clamp is excellent
The clamp arm hardware part is very well designed. In my tests I discovered that I could control the robot to a little disorder and tell him to pick it up, and that, almost without fail, I would recognize and adjust his positioning and clamp so he can pick it up. Then he could resume control and drive the bot where he wanted the disorder to go.
If the fault truck, Roborock has included manual adjustment options so you can operate your arm yourself. These are intuitive and precise, and the grip is gentle but firm. The arm also gets perfectly behind a hatch when it is not in use, so it cannot be trapped in anything while the bot is on its trips. There is great potential for people with limited mobility here.
2. There are many security measures
Most of the people with whom I talk about this robovac seem to fear that the omnigrip is too jealous and tried to order the cat. Roborock has incorporated many security characteristics to ensure that this does not happen. First, all the characteristics of the arm are turned off by default, so nothing will happen until specifically what you want you to do.
It is designed only to try to order very specific objects, having identified them using the technology of recognition of roborock objects (generally excellent), and the arm has a weight sensor that prevents raising elevation objects of more than 300 g. The clamp itself is designed to be “firm but gentle”, to avoid damage to objects, as like one of those fairground claw games, but with a much higher success rate. Finally, there is a physical ’emergency stop’ button in the robot and a blockade of children.
3. It’s easy to use
This is a small and potentially intimidating technology, so congratulations should go to Roborock for doing it impressive. He has placed the robot arm options in front and the center in the complementary application, encouraging users to explore and familiarize themselves with them. In addition, controls itself are logical and intuitive.
4. It is an unexpectedly excellent security chamber
Many high -end robot vacuum cleaners can double as home security cameras, but is a bit limited by the fact that their opinion is at ground level. Here, Roborock has added a camera in the arm itself. The arm can not only reach much higher, but it can also bow vertically, thus offering a much more expansive field of vision than if you were using only the camera mounted on the front. Of course, you can only spy on what is happening inside Your home, but useful despite.
3 things that need to improve
1. does not work on its own
While the remote control assisted clamp worked very well in my tests, really, Saros Z70 needs to be able to order without assistance if it is really useful for most people. Theoretically, you can ask the robot to identify adequate objects to order while it is in a complete home, then, once it is finished, embarks on a second race to pick them up and put them in a designated place.
Unfortunately, this part still does not work. It seems that all conditions must be absolutely perfect for the process to succeed. Then, the bot needs to see the elements and identify them correctly, then be able to find them again, then pick them up successfully and then find their way to the right relocation place. I have not yet achieved an execution where one of these factors does not fail.
Roborock also told me that the process has a lower success rate on the carpet than hard floors, due to a “hardware limitation.” That feels like a significant warning.
If something seems to get stuck on the arm, then all other functions are blocked until it restores it manually by pressing physical buttons in the robot. For example, on one occasion during my tests, the arm picked up a sandal, then, while turning with it, the sandal was trapped at a door and the belt twisted, so when the bot tried to release it, he could not. I had to go to rescue him before he could continue. It is probably a logical security measure, but it is not ideal to have to physically get involved to fix the matter.
I hope that automation functions improve with updates, but at this time, this bot can really not remain to order it.
2. You can only collect some things
At the time of writing, the list of compatible objects is very short: sandals / light shoes, socks, small towels and wrinkled silk paper. It makes sense that Roborock is cautious when adding more objects, because it must be sure that the bot can identify them correctly and does not end up trying to grab something that it should not. But it limits its utility, as well as weight limitation (and presumably size).
It is not so much Roborock’s fault as a limitation of the form factor. Logically, it follows that the bot can not address anything too big or heavy. But it still affects how useful this long -term design could be.
3. The price
At the moment, Roborock Saros Z70 comes with a price of $ 2,599 / AU $ 3,999 (TBC of the United Kingdom, but potentially around £ 1,950 according to what it costs elsewhere). It is the most expensive robovac that we have tried, by some margin and beyond the reach of most people. At the moment, it is the only robot vacuum in the market that presents a robotic arm, so a rules list price is not surprising. However, I am not sure that I would buy it at that price, at least until some of the problems were solved.
Because the robot vacuum market is competitive, with new models that are launched regularly, I am used to seeing good offers and prices that fall quite fast as even better bots reach the market. There seems to be more robovacs equipped with arms in the pipe of other brands, so if the idea is a success, we could see a more competitive price panorama emerge. However, I suspect it will take time.
