Robot vacuums are a convenient way to keep your home clean without much effort, but they all have one major problem: what if your home has multiple floors? At CES this year I saw two attempts to solve this problem, but one of them was much more fabulous than the other.
Roborock has a robot vacuum cleaner with legs
This is the most unique of the stair-climbing robot vacuums and new this year. At CES 2026, a robotic vacuum cleaner company Roborock introduced the Roborock Saros Rover, which features two folding and individually articulated legs, each with wheels.
This allows it to act like a standard robot vacuum when it's on level ground, but when it encounters stairs, it uses its legs to slowly pull itself up and over them. And because these legs are individually articulated, unlike other solutions, it can clean stairs as you climb.
Plus, it can also perform fun programmable actions like dancing and even jumping. Honestly, it looks a lot cuter than other bipedal robots I saw at CES this year. Perhaps this is because it still serves a specific purpose.
Problem? You'll need a new model to benefit from stair climbing, while competitors are introducing solutions that work with existing vacuum cleaners.
The Roborock Saros Rover also doesn't have exact pricing or a release date yet, but Roborock assured me that it's not a concept and will eventually hit the market. I was told that the goal was this year, but the company could not confirm this.
Vacuum docking station for Dreame robot that climbs stairs
Credit: Michelle Erhardt
Near the Roborock booth, I also saw another take on a robot vacuum cleaner that climbs stairs from a competitor. I dream. This actually appeared in German technology conference IFA last yearbut it's still worth mentioning, if only to highlight how different Roborock is. Essentially, instead of building one model of robot vacuum with separate legs, Dreame built a docking station that an existing robot vacuum can drive into, and then the dock will lift it up the stairs like a taxi.
What are your thoughts so far?
The catch is that since the dock needs to be able to ride up stairs, it doesn't use individually articulated legs to climb, but instead uses steps that move in sync with each other. It goes up and down stairs without any problems, but unlike the Roborock solution, it can't clean.
Credit: Michelle Erhardt
However, I will note that I personally saw Doc Dream go down the stairs, which Roborok's unit did not do in the demo I watched. Perhaps this is a more stable approach.
Unfortunately, while Roborock has said it definitely plans to bring the Saros Rover to market, the Dreame dock called Cyber X is still just a concept and may never make it to consumers.
