Robot

Nearly 10 months after the Eufy Omni S2 debuted at CES 2026, Anker has announced a new Pro version that boosts suction from 30,000Pa to 40,000Pa while also introducing a UV-C light on the underside to help disinfect floors as the robovac cleans and mops. The Eufy Omni S2 Pro is available starting today for $1,699.

No, you can’t buy it. It’s a “just for fun” project to show off Google AI Studio. But it’s also undeniably cute. Sprout wanders autonomously to find the best sunlight and sends an alert when the plant needs watering.

Researchers from ETH Zürich’s Robotic Systems Lab used reinforcement learning through simulations and “teacher-student distillation” to teach a quadruped robot how to independently solve an oversized Rubik’s Cube. The feat is even more impressive given the bot has to use its stubby legs and feet to reorient the cube and rotate its sides.

And no, you haven’t forgotten about a line of Intel-made Roombas. It requested permission to make hardware changes to the “Automatic Guided Vehicles” it’s used in semiconductor facilities for two decades. It says replacing the machines could take years, and there are no domestic alternatives. The FCC agreed, giving it permission to update its bots for the next year.

Launching today, this companion robot-slash-lamp resembles a mushroom, with a glowing head and eyes that emerge from the base. It’s designed to proactively help you relax and connect with nature.

Former Boston Dynamics CTO Aaron Saunders, who joined Google in 2025, announced the project on LinkedIn. “We’re creating a first-class lab to house this team and take robotics to the next level,” he said. It comes as Google pushes deeper into robotics, including with Gemini Robotics AI models and absorbing Alphabet robotics moonshot Intrinsic.

The redesigned hands have 13 degrees of freedom and “dense tactile pressure sensors” that allow Atlas to use real-world tools, like the drill it tries out in a demo video. Boston Dynamics also ditched the pinky finger on the new hands to “reduce cost, size, and failure points.” Maybe Tesla will go a similar route with its bot?

This episode of the BBC’s Towards Tomorrow explores whether humans and robots can coexist. It features an introduction from Isaac Asimov, in which he wonders whether the line between the two will become meaningless and “humanity itself will die out as humanity, and sort of melt into this machine culture.”

The company’s Saros 20 Flow goes on sale today for $1,499.99 (down from $1,699.99). At 3.53 inches tall, it’s one of the slimmest roller mop models, and with 36,000 Pa suction, camera-based obstacle recognition, and the ability to climb multi-layer thresholds, this robot should be able to get the job done. I got a first look at IFA last week and plan to test it soon.

The ban, announced in July, has caused chaos for many manufacturers of robot vacuums, pool cleaners, lawn mowers, and more. Swedish company Husqvarna has secured the first exception to the rule for its 305v IQ, 310v IQ, 420v IQ, and 440v IQ after the Defense Department decided they don’t pose a national security risk.

The buzz at IFA was all around robotics — humanoids, quadrupeds, and wheeled bots designed to be household helpers and companions. I was on a panel (watch it here) where roboticists and entrepreneurs insisted that in five years everyone will know someone with a humanoid at home.

The Nurovi range features a robot mop with spinning pads, a vacuum-only option, and an upgraded version of its Spot+Scrub AI, which adds UV detection and comes in white. Nurovi supposedly stands for “neural intelligence” combined with a camera-based vision system, which makes the robots better at navigation than prior models — based on limited demos I saw at IFA in Berlin. All three robots go on sale this month.

It’s launching the RockAqua P1, which can clean up your pool floor, walls, and waterline with a suction power of up to 6,800 gallons per hour. The device has a 3.5-hour runtime for floor cleaning and will automatically return to the water’s surface when it needs a charge or has finished cleaning.

A notice published on the Department of Homeland Security’s website says the agency plans to spend up to $2 million on Boston Dynamics’ robot dog, as reported earlier by 404 Media. This comes just weeks after the Associated Press reported that ICE aims to spend up to $20 million on gloves that deliver electric shocks.

Arduino and Qualcomm have opened preorders for the Ventuno Q, an edge AI board designed to run agentic AI locally. Powered by a Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ8 processor offering up to 40 TOPS alongside a dedicated real-time microcontroller, it allows smart devices and robots to process vision, speech, and sensor data completely offline.

Humanoid robot makers are earning much of their revenue selling bots to government-backed training centers, which then sell training data back to the industry, the FT reports. It’s AI circularity all over again, stoking fresh humanoid bubble fears as Unitree soars in its stock market debut despite the US foreign robot ban.

The just-IPO’d Chinese robot maker claims it beat two human world records in one video: highest standing high jump and fastest running speed. Bolt’s top speed was 12.22 meters per second; Unitree claims 12.66. Robot marathons and MMA matches are now a thing in China, while the US is banning imports of such robots.

Samsung’s adorable rolling robot was never officially killed off, but it also never made it to retail as promised. SammyGuru just discovered an unmistakable Ballie-looking icon inside an official Samsung app during an APK teardown. More proof of life or just another death rattle?