Ground sensors: If your home has a lot of transitions from carpet to tile, a robotic vacuum that knows the difference is crucial for a smooth clean. In the world of dry vacuuming, this just ensures that carpets are vacuumed up more intensely while keeping the suction on tile or hardwood much quieter. For the robot vacuuming that mop, recognizing the carpet will prevent your hybrid from getting wet, slick floors.
Detection of carpets when scanning: Some lower-end hybrid vacuums go into full mopping mode automatically once their water tank is connected, requiring you to turn the mop on and off (or create a zone in the app, if that’s an option) depending on the room being cleaned. Smarter mopping bots can be trusted to use their mopping pad 24/7, because they know to pause the water flow and lift the wet cloth over the rug. This level of careful avoidance is especially astringent for tiled bathroom floors with bathroom rugs or tiled kitchen floors with runner rugs.
vibrating purification: Don’t expect a robotic vacuum to handle gunk as well as a steamer or good old elbow grease. But robot vacuums that actually clean, like the sonic vibrating mopping of the high-end Roborock robotic vacuum, are more likely to successfully sweep up dried food droplets or footprints than hybrids that drag a damp cloth across the floor.
Smart mapping: The robot’s navigation technology determines whether or not it’s equipped to stick to virtual boundaries (or be stuck with those ugly magnetic strips). Lidar, a laser that scans various points in your home to determine where the walls are, will be especially useful if you can see yourself only wanting to clean certain rooms (like the kitchen after dinner) on certain days. This mapping accuracy also allows you to set up areas you’d like the robot to avoid, such as a pile of toys or your pet’s water bowl.