ROBOT VACUUMS have been roaming living rooms for over a decade now, haplessly bonking into walls, table legs and sofa corners in their relentless but imprecise quest to devour our most elusive dust bunnies. They do a fine enough job, but watching them work is more like watching slapstick comedy than awe-inspiring science fiction. The evolution of these robots, created by companies like iRobot and Neato, has largely been incremental. Each successive generation has been less obtuse than the previous—but just a bit. More sweeping change is afoot with the latest crop of these machines, however. With the addition of cameras, for example, some robots can now steer clear of a wall or other obstacle. They’ll still bump into things, mind you, but a lot less often. The cameras also help the bots figure out where they’ve been—a seemingly simple enhancement that makes a host of new skills possible. For example, some robot vacuums—like the ones from iRobot and Samsung% below—can now clean half your home, return to their bases to recharge their batteries and then pick up where they left off without traversing the same area again.

This allows designers to crank up the suction power, since conserving battery life is no longer a concern. The bots can simply recharge as many times as needed to get a job done. For the first time, we’re also seeing robots that can connect to the Internet, allowing you to activate them using a smartphone app from another floor in your home or from across the country. Don’t have time to vacuum before a last-minute guest comes over? Just turn on your robo housekeeper from the grocery store. These advancements also include an element of fun. Some of the models shown here let you disengage their autopilot and commandeer them like a remote-controlled car—not a terribly fast one, but one that cleans as it goes. Whether you’re seeking Martha-Stewart-worthy cleanliness or simply a “magic carpet” for your cat (search YouTube), here are a few especially capable bots. Three Next-Gen Robots for More Nimble Hands-Off Tidying FOR GIGANTIC HOMES: iRobot Roomba 980 Unlike previous-generation Roombas, which zigged and zagged about the floor randomly, this flagship model is the first Roomba to work a room methodically: It moves in orderly rows before sweeping the perimeter.

A camera on top helps the Roomba 980 create a real-time map of each room, so it can start where it left off after recharging. (Privacy-conscious neatniks, fear not: The map the Roomba creates of your home is never uploaded to the cloud and gets erased from the robot’s memory 90 minutes after cleaning). Each charge yields up to two hours of cleaning time, and the Roomba can automatically adjust its suction level when it senses it’s traversing carpet or floor. 3000 steam vacuum cleanerThe companion app for Android and iOS lets you start the Roomba with a tap—or set it to run on a schedule. bagless vacuum cleaners prices FOR SUPERIOR HANDLING: Neato Botvac Connected As handy as a self-piloting vacuum can be, sometimes you want it to tackle a small area—say, under the dining table after an all-muffin breakfast. vacuum cleaner attachment organizer

When it’s released later this year, the Botvac Connected will let you switch off autopilot and steer it using an Android and iOS app. The controls are especially agile: Slide your finger in any direction across your smartphone’s screen and you’ll have the bot weaving in and out of chair legs and making hairpin turns around hallway corners. As with the Roomba, this one lets you set how fervently you’d like it to clean while in autopilot mode: “Eco” runs more quietly and slowly, while “turbo” goes for a deeper, faster and noisier clean. While the Neato can recharge itself when cleaning multiple rooms, it’s intended for smaller spaces than the McMansion-friendly Roomba 980. On the plus side, this is the most affordable of these flagship models. FOR SPOT CLEANING: Samsung VR9000 POWERBot Instead of a smartphone app, Samsung’s bot uses a physical remote control—the kind with actual buttons. Click one to engage the POWERBot’s coolest feature: When you turn on the remote’s laser-pointer-like red beam and direct it at a pulverized Cheerio or any other spot on the floor, the POWERBot will home in on it like a guided missile.

(You can also steer the POWERBot manually with the remote’s four arrow buttons, but it isn’t nearly as much fun as the Neato). This camera-equipped vac is about an inch taller than iRobot and Neato models, so it has a tougher time fitting under low-slung couches. But on the plus side, its dust bin is a clear plastic container located on top of the machine, making a full bin easy to see. (Roomba and Neato’s containers are hidden underneath the devices.) This might be a small step technologically, but functionally it’s a giant leap forward. $ Corrections & Amplifications The iRobot Roomba 980 is currently available for sale. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the product would be on sale next month and named Roomba as its manufacturer. More in Gear & Gadgets Should Parents Play Videogames With Their Children? The Best Headphones With Customizable Sound BB-8 Awakens: Is Sphero’s New Droid the Most Awesome Star Wars Toy Ever? Toys That Teach the Basics of Coding Skateboard Great Tony Hawk’s Favorite Gear Designer Marc Newson on Fountain Pens and the Sad State of Cars

At a break in a conference in San Diego, I was sitting enjoying my tea, when up walked Rodney Brooks (of Rethink Robotics and Baxter fame) and said (with a mischievious smile): I have a bone to pick with you! Robotic vacuum cleaners didn’t just become mainstream as you said in your article. We have sold 12 million by now and are the biggest seller in Samsung’s home (Korea). He went on to say that Dyson is a small player in the global vacuum marketplace and that Samsung has gone through many iterations of improvement yet iRobot’s Roomba’s still outsell them in their core market. Brooks was referring to my two articles in The Robot Report where I commented about Samsung’s and Dyson’s new robotic vacuums. He wasn’t really angry; But I began to think about what he was referring to, considering whether I had said something incorrect or possibly hurtful. The second of my two articles had the headline: Latest robotic vacuum product launches change industry from niche to mainstream.

In those articles I said:Dyson has considerable experience in the higher-end vacuuming market – selling more than 10 million devices a year! Dyson generated nearly $10 billion in revenue in 2013 of which at least 40% is vacuum-related versus iRobot’s $487 million. Consequently, if the new Dyson 360 Eye robotic vacuum is as good as other Dyson vacuum cleaners, there is much reason for iRobot to worry. iRobot, over the past 10 years, has sold 10 million Roombas, mostly through online distribution methods. With the global consumer distribution channels that both Dyson and Samsung bring, it’s conceivable that either (or both) could sell 10 million of their products in a single year! In the two articles, I was attempting to describe the transition that often happens with unique consumer products as they switch from niche markets of early adopters to the massively larger mainstream household products market. And even though iRobot has sold 10 million Roombas over a 10-year period, that’s just a fraction of the 50+ million global vacuums sold annually for $11 billion (source: TechNavio).