Most robot vacuums beg for your forgiveness with their awkward, boxy presence, but the Roborock Qrevo CurvX asks for a place in your home like a well-chosen piece of furniture. It enters the conversation not just as another appliance, but as a statement on what home technology should be. With its softly arched silhouette and a philosophy that puts people, not just specifications, at the forefront, the Qrevo CurvX is engineered to disappear into your life, not just your room corners. It feels like the robot vacuum for those who think about how form and emotion, not just about function.

The design philosophy behind the CurvX is described with terms like “surface tension” and “soft architecture,” which sounds more like a museum exhibit than a home appliance. Looking at the unit, you can see what they mean. The docking station abandons the rigid, tower-like structure of its peers for a continuous, fluid curve that houses the water tanks and dustbin. It’s a quiet, elegant form that flows seamlessly into a living space, looking less like a piece of machinery and more like a minimalist sculpture. This is a direct response to a world where smart devices are often cold, visually intrusive objects. By embracing a rounded silhouette and muted tones, Roborock seems to be asking a fundamental question: how should a piece of technology feel when it lives with you? The answer, apparently, is that it should feel like it belongs.

Designer: Roborock

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This thinking goes deeper than just aesthetics, reflecting a core principle of humanistic design and “soft technology.” The idea here is that the machine should adapt to the human, not the other way around. It’s a philosophy born from asking how a device can respect the emotional and cultural rhythm of a home. This translates into tangible features that reduce the friction between you and the technology. The CurvX operates with a brushless motor and optimized hardware that significantly cut down on noise, making it a quiet collaborator rather than a noisy servant that interrupts your conversations or concentration. The fully automated dock is another manifestation of this warmth; by handling nearly all the dirty work of emptying, washing, and drying, it removes the mental and physical burden of maintenance. It’s a thoughtful approach where the technology aims to be considerate, anticipating needs and fading into the background, allowing you to simply enjoy a clean space without constantly tending to the machine that creates it.

Of course, a beautiful object that fails at its primary job is just an expensive paperweight. While the Qrevo CurvX speaks in soft aesthetic tones, it performs with absolute confidence. Beneath that sculptural exterior lies a flagship-level cleaning system that seems to address nearly every common complaint about robot vacuums. The power behind the operation is its 22,000Pa HyperForce suction system. That number might sound abstract, but for context, it represents a level of force capable of lifting dirt and allergens from deep within carpet fibers, a task where many lesser robots struggle. It’s the kind of power that translates to a visibly cleaner floor, not just a surface-level tidy up.

This raw power is channeled through a cleverly designed Dual Anti-Tangle System. Anyone who has ever owned a robot vacuum, especially with pets or long-haired family members, knows the tedious ritual of flipping the robot over to cut away a tangled mess of hair from the brush roll. The CurvX system uses a unique split-brush design that works to prevent hair from wrapping in the first place, directing it straight into the dustbin. This is one of those quality-of-life features that transforms the ownership experience from one of constant maintenance to one of genuine automation. The robot just works, leaving you to do anything else.

Mopping has also received a significant upgrade. The system uses dual spinning mop pads that scrub floors with consistent pressure, a far more effective method than simply dragging a wet cloth around. What truly sets it apart, however, is its intelligent auto-mop lifting capability. When the robot detects it is moving from a hard floor to a carpet or rug, it lifts its mop pads by a full 10 millimeters. This small action is a huge deal; it prevents the robot from dragging a wet, dirty mop across your carpets, allowing it to vacuum and mop an entire mixed-surface floor plan in a single, uninterrupted run.

The intelligence extends to the Multifunctional Dock 3.0 Thermo+, which is the brains and pit crew of the entire operation. After a cleaning run, the robot returns to the dock, which automatically empties the robot’s dustbin into a larger bag. It then washes the spinning mop pads with 176°F (80°C) hot water to dissolve grime and kill bacteria, followed by a hot air-drying cycle to prevent mildew and odors (based on testing carried out by TUV Rheinland on Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli under default self-cleaning mode, over 99.99% of bacteria or the spinning mops are effectively removed). It even refills the robot’s onboard water tank for the next mopping session. This comprehensive self-maintenance cycle means user interaction is reduced to occasionally changing the dock’s water and dust bag, pushing the system much closer to a true set-it-and-forget-it reality.

Two of the most innovative features are the ones you can’t immediately see. The first is the industry-first AdaptiLift Chassis. This system allows the robot to physically lift its own body to clear obstacles like tall thresholds between rooms, a common barrier that can trap other robots. Observers have noted this gives the CurvX an impressive ability to navigate complex homes without getting stuck. The second is its RetractSense Navigation System, which includes a FlexiArm side brush. On most round robots, cleaning corners and edges is a persistent weakness. The CurvX’s side brush can dynamically extend outwards, actively reaching into corners and along baseboards to sweep debris into the path of the main brushes, ensuring a more thorough clean where it matters most.

All of this hardware is guided by a sophisticated brain. The Reactive AI 3.0 Obstacle Recognition uses a forward-facing camera and structured light to identify and avoid common household objects, identifying up to 108 types of obstacles. It builds a detailed map of your home, allowing for customized cleaning schedules, no-go zones, and room-specific settings, all controlled through a user-friendly app. At just 3.14 inches (7.98 cm) tall, its ultra-slim profile lets it glide under low furniture, cleaning the hidden spaces that are often missed. It all comes together to create a machine that is not just powerful, but also perceptive and respectful of its environment. The Roborock Qrevo CurvX doesn’t ask you to choose between a clean home and a beautiful one; it offers both, proving that cleanliness isn’t just about a dust-free floor, it’s about an aesthetic home too.

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Robot vacuum cleaners are so advanced these days that some of them barely need human intervention. Of course, that wasn’t always the case in the earliest days of this market segment, with the first generations relying on some very basic technologies and software by today’s standards. Although its name has become synonymous with robot vacs, the Roomba has almost all but faded into that background.

Some, however, have found some rather creative uses for older models, with a bit of hacking and ingenuity. Giving a very old rolling robot a better brain and literally space-grade software, this mod turns a cleaning machine into a mess-making one, albeit not by intention. Instead of picking up dirt or even clothes, the “Space Vacuum” will instead drop pieces of food for your canine companion to munch on when it’s near.

Designer: Joaquim Silveira

Most of us probably have a file of unused and abandoned electronics that are still a bit functional except for one broken or missing part. We don’t have much practical use for them, so they just end up gathering dust and taking up space, sometimes forgotten until the next Spring cleaning. A few people, however, have the fortunate skill to bring these machines back to life, though sometimes with a different function so different from the original.

This Roomba, for example, once cleaned up dirty floors in a previous lifetime. But with some clever use of off-the-shelf hardware like an Arduino and some skilled DIY electronics, it has been given a new lease on life as a dog food dispenser. Ironically, it now does the opposite of cleaning the floor and instead makes a mess, presuming the canine doesn’t gobble up the treats first.

What the Space Vacuum basically does is detect the presence of a dog, while differentiating it from other living critters in the house, and drops dog food from a paper cup that has its bottom partially cut out. Curiously enough, the software used for this project is NASA Jet Propulsion Labs’s (JPL) Fprime flight software used for space missions and controlling drones, which sounds a bit overkill for a food-dispensing robot. That, however, gives it the right to call itself a “Space Vacuum,” though the vacuum part is in question.

It’s definitely not going to win any awards for aesthetics or practicality, but the project does spark curiosity and maybe inspire a few more experiments using these house robots. The rather odd clothes-picking Roborock vacuum at CES 2025 demonstrated what these machines are actually capable of, especially with their advanced sensors and AI-powered brains. All they need is a robot arm or a proper food dispenser, and they have the makings of a general-purpose robot that won’t take up too much floor space.

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If you think just about the Nothing.tech company ethos of bringing fun back to tech while still being design-driven and meaningful, that ethos can apply to pretty much any category of product. Sure, Nothing’s best known for their earbuds, phones, and even other accessories like the CMF Watch Pro… so here’s a proposition – what if we took Nothing’s ethos and brought it to other products that are a bit of a visual afterthought? The robot vacuum, for instance, is a fairly ‘boring’ looking product. Its job is literally to scuttle around the house cleaning up after your mess, so for the most part, its design is driven by function rather than expression. However, by bringing the robot vacuum under the Nothing design umbrella, Soo Hyun Lim and PDF HAUS have uplifted an otherwise dull-looking appliance into something that inherently feels more modern – because it borrows its design cues directly from Nothing’s modern-looking smartphones.

Designers: Soo Hyun Lim & PDF HAUS

Meet the Nothing Robot Vacuum (1), a tongue-in-cheek fan-made concept that ports Nothing’s DNA onto a familiar product template. Most robot vacuums are the same shape and size, so how could you possibly make things interesting? Well, LEDs and transparent covers, of course! The Robot Vacuum (1) has a circular profile that’s then outfitted with a transparent D-shaped outer shell, giving it an almost ‘preserved in glass’ kind of look. Sensors are where they belong (on the front as well as on the top), and although you can’t entirely make a robot vacuum transparent, what with all the dust and dirt, Hyun Lim does something clever by bringing the Glyph Interface to the product. What does the interface do? Well, it acts as a progress bar that lets you know how much cleaning’s left. Similarly, Glyph lights on the vacuum’s docking station light up to indicate charging process as well as letting you know the fill-status on the station’s dustbin, so you know when to throw the trash out every week or so.

With the aesthetic appeal of a fancy turntable, the Nothing Robot Vacuum (1) highlights a kind of Bauhaus-meets-Scandinavian minimalism that companies like Bang&Olufsen have come to showcase so well with their products. The vacuum looks classy, not appliance-y, which is quite a win because of how menial its task actually is. I mean, sure some appliances have boring jobs, like thermostats and dehumidifiers, but that’s no reason they should look ‘boring’, right? Well, the Nothing Robot Vacuum (1) rejects that stereotype.

As far as the design goes, the vacuum comes in 3 colors – black, white, and grey. Just from a top view, you instantly recognize the Nothing design template. The Glyph Interface at the 7 o’clock position, the transparent elements along the body, and a radial pattern on the upper half of the circular top that sort of resembles the coils in the wireless charging zone on the smartphones. It’s simple, yet cleverly executed.

Just like with the phones, you’ve got microtextures galore, along with text screen-printed onto the transparent elements like the upper guard (that prevents the sensors on top from being damaged), and the front transparent bumper that helps the robot vacuum easily maneuver into corners. Moreover, Hyun Lim mentions that the vacuum is constructed from recycled plastic and aluminum, which seems like a nice sustainability touch that goes well with the ‘clean’ image of the vacuum cleaner.

Although conceptual, Hyun Lim does give the robot vacuum a fair bit of detail. You’ve got a rotary broom on the front, along with a vibrating wet mop that helps get grease, grime, and other stains off your floor. The simple design is complemented by a simple UX – you can lift the lid to access the robot’s power button or open its water reservoir to replenish it between cleaning sessions. The sensors on the front and top help the vacuum navigate through the house, while an app on the phone gives you all the controls you need to set schedules, paths, no-go zones, and charging times. Plus, when the robot vacuum runs low on juice, it automatically goes and docks in its station, where the battery gets charged and the dust-tank gets cleaned.

The docking station is just as minimal as the vacuum itself, and serves as a place where your appliance goes to take a pit-stop. Once docked, the Robot Vacuum (1) charges its batteries, while performing a self-clean operation so it’s good to go for round 2. This means the mop head gets cleaned with water, and the dust/dirt tank gets disposed into the docking station’s larger ‘dustbin’. When the dustbin gets filled (after a couple of days of cleaning), all you need to do is empty the trash bag inside and replace it with a new one. That’s where the docking station’s Glyph lights come handy, letting you know your vacuum’s charging rate, along with the dustbin’s current capacity.

Although the Robot Vacuum (1) is purely conceptual at this point, it does prove that Nothing’s approach to redefining technology as ‘accessible fun’ is quite a winning and versatile one. The Robot Vacuum (1) doesn’t exist but there’s no reason it shouldn’t. Carl, you listening?

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Robot vacuum cleaners and mops are common sights these days, but despite all the advancements they’ve made in terms of technology, their basic shape has remained unchanged since the first-ever Roomba. They’re almost all circular, though the are some that have taken on rounded square forms, a shape that was dictated by the limitations of old technologies that don’t seem to be relevant today. This standard design, however, still carries over other limitations, like squeezing into tight spaces or cleaning corners. Perhaps it’s time to rethink that old and outdated design, which is what this concept tries to do in order to cater to homes with smaller, cramped spaces and messy floors.

Designer: Subin Kim

The initial design of robot vacuums was made primarily for the robot and not the humans. The circular shape made it easier for the machine to turn and correct its direction, something that was all too common given the very basic technologies from decades past. Today, however, most robot cleaners have no problem navigating the most cluttered floors, so there’s now an opportunity to rethink that basic shape.

mini is a concept design that stretches the robot vacuum into a more rectangular form, technically more pill-shaped with its rounded sides. The idea is that this robot can better squeeze itself into narrow spaces, like those between walls and furniture, or hug edges to properly brush and vacuum areas that even the most sophisticated circular robot can’t reach. In small apartments or tiny homes, that is more often the case, so such a design is more useful than the majority of round or square robots.

The design can actually be even more efficient than standard robot vacuums because it can change its orientation depending on the area of the floor to be cleaned. In its vertical mode, it can easily clean out narrow gaps, but then it can rotate and switch to horizontal mode if there’s a wider space available for it to move. Such a feat would require AI and advanced sensors, both of which are readily available on most robot cleaners today.

mini’s design does mean it won’t be able to turn quickly, but that can be handled by better obstacle detection and smarter navigation. Although it might not work perfectly in practice, the concept does challenge the status quo and encourages a design that really puts the user at the center, rather than simply turning such robot helpers into technological showcases.

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