iRobot launches eight new Roombas and finally adds lidar mapping

After a tumultuous 2024, in which iRobot lost its founder and CEO, Colin Angle, Amazon abandoned its acquisition plans, and the company laid off a large portion of its staff, iRobot is back with a major shake-up of its robotic vacuum line.

This week, the company that invented the robot vacuum over 20 years ago announced eight new models that are definitely not the Roombas you’re used to. Not only do they look totally different, but they also work differently, thanks to a new-to-Roomba feature: lidar navigation and mapping.

The new lineup starts at $299 and goes up to $999. It features the entry-level 105 series of vacuums and vacuum mops with the option of an auto-empty dock, the 205 series with a new onboard dust compactor, and the higher-end 405 and 505 models that bring dual spinning mopping pads to the iRobot family for the first time. The new bots come in black and white and will be available to preorder on March 18th at iRobot.com in the US and select European markets.

According to the company, this is the largest product launch in iRobot history. But that’s not the biggest surprise. iRobot finally adding lidar navigation and room mapping — a technology used by most competitors — is a huge change that should bring faster mapping and more features to Roombas. The company is also launching a new iRobot app that adds a real-time cleaning view aided by lidar and it has started publishing suction power specs for its robots.

All the new models feature 7,000Pa and four suction levels, according to iRobot’s product management lead, Warren Fernandez. While he points out it’s not all about suction power, this is significantly lower than the competition. Roborock’s newest model, the Saros 10, has 22,000Pa (but costs $1,600).

Facing increasing competition from Chinese manufacturers, iRobot has gone back to the drawing board with this new line. Featuring a completely new industrial design, the Roombas have been redesigned from the ground up to accommodate the shift from camera-based vSLAM navigation to lidar.

In an interview with The Verge, Fernandez said that iRobot made the change now after evaluating the technology for some time because they believe lidar is finally mature enough and affordable enough to fit into their product roadmap.

The main benefit of lidar is smarter mapping for the lower-priced Roombas, including room-specific cleaning and the ability to create clean zones and keep-out zones in the app. For the higher-end models, it should mean faster mapping and more agile navigation.

Also new is an ultrasonic carpet detection sensor on all Roombas, so the robots can intelligently avoid carpets when mopping. The mopping models now all have three levels of water flow and iRobot’s unique SmartScrub option. Previously, most of these features were reserved for higher-end Roombas, which started at $500.

Most models now have a lidar tower on top, and the auto-empty docks have a whole new look. Overall, the new Roombas look a lot more like models from iRobot’s major competitors: Roborock, Dreame, and Ecovacs.

The fanciest model in the new line is the $999 (€799) Roomba Plus 505 Combo Robot Plus AutoWash Dock (yes, the naming has gotten worse). This is the first Roomba with dual spinning mop pads for scrubbing hard floors. It can also extend its right mop outward to clean along edges and lift its mops 10mm to avoid low-pile carpets. Roborock and Dreame have had variations on these features for a while.

The 505 comes with a new multifunction dock that washes and dries the mop pads, refills the mop tank, and empties the bin. It also adds heated drying, something the Combo 10 Max, iRobot’s top-of-the-line robot vacuum / mop that launched last summer, doesn’t have. Like the 10 Max, the 505 has AI-powered obstacle detection, thanks to an onboard camera, so it should recognize and avoid things like cords, socks, and pet waste.

Fernandez says the 10 Max remains the current flagship model, as it has better cleaning power than the 505, but he declined to give suction specs for it. It uses a different mop — a retractable system that puts the mop on top of the bot to avoid carpets. According to Fernandez, the 505 is the only Roomba among the new models that will support the Matter smart home standard, which the 10 Max also does. All the new models will support existing integrations with Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Home.

The Roomba Plus 405 Combo Robot Plus AutoWash Dock is a step down in price to $799 (€699). It keeps all the same basic functionality — a combo vacuum and mop with spinning mopping pads and a multifunctional dock — but it differs from the 505 in a few ways. It can’t extend its mops, doesn’t have AI-powered obstacle detection (as there’s no camera), and lacks heated mop drying. It also has iRobot’s standard ClearView Lidar navigation, whereas the 505 has a Pro version, which Fernandez says is more accurate and can see smaller objects.

The budget lineup is also getting a big bump up. The new Roomba 105 and 205 series have the same lidar-based mapping, 7,000Pa suction, virtual keep-out zones, automatic carpet detection and avoidance, and object sensing and avoidance capabilities as the 405, all features unavailable on the entry-level Roomba i5 and Combo Essential line.

Both new models come in a vacuum-only or a combo option that adds a removable flat microfiber mopping pad. The 105 works with an auto-empty dock, but the 205 uses the new dust compactor technology. “It’s kind of like a miniaturized version of a trash compactor,” says Fernandez. He says it can last two months before emptying, compared to 75 days on the auto-empty dock. You don’t need to find space for an auto-empty dock, which means you can stick your robot under a couch or bed, and he added that there isn’t a loud emptying noise or a need to buy bin bags.

Both series are priced the same: $449 for the 105 Vac Robot Plus AutoEmpty Dock; $469 (€449) for the 105 Combo Robot Plus AutoEmpty Dock; $449 for the 205 DustCompactor Vac Robot; and $469 (€449) for the 205 DustCompactor Combo Robot. (This is more expensive than Roomba’s Combo Essential line with auto-empty dock, but those don’t have lidar.) If you’re fine with emptying a bin once a week or so, you can go for the 105 Vac Robot for $299 or the 105 Combo Robot for $319 (€299).

There are some innovations here; the dust compactor will appeal to those who don’t like the extra clutter of those big auto-empty docks. I’ve seen something similar on the Narwal Freo X Ultra and found it to be very good. But overall, this lineup represents iRobot capitulating to the competition.

For years, under founder and CEO Colin Angle, the company stood firm in its belief that its superior cleaning ability and smarter robots were just better. It appears that the new CEO, Gary Cohen, took a look at the competitive landscape and decided that what people really want is spinning mop pads, lidar towers, and suction specs, so that’s what you’re getting. “Last year, we reinvented our iRobot Research and Development Labs, and these robots are the result of our world-class engineers’ and designers’ brilliance,” he said in a press release.

This “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach is clearly designed to save the struggling company. The pricing is competitive, and combined with the Roomba name, it’s a strategy that could work well, assuming the products are as good and as reliable as Roombas have traditionally been.

I’m looking forward to testing the new robots to see how they stack up to the current Roombas, which have long been some of my favorite robot vacuums. But for today, I’m slightly sad to see decades of innovation and enterprise at iRobot get trampled in what looks to be a boring race to the middle.