A stair-climbing robot vacuum isn’t a new idea. We saw an early attempt at it with the Dreame X50 Ultra, which was able to overcome thresholds of around 2 inches. Recently, at IFA 2025, we saw the Eufy Marswalker and Dreame CyberX, which use a system of treads and an additional shell to help the robot get up stairs. However, neither can actually clean the stairs.

The Roborock Saros Rover is different. It’s a robot with legs — and I mean real legs, not treads or a lift system.

How the Saros Rover works

The Saros Rover operates differently from the other stair-climbing robots I’ve seen demoed before. Instead of using a shell with tread attachments, it deploys a pair of legs and wheels to lever itself up over stairs and other obstacles. Its climbing is vaguely reminiscent of a stork or other long-legged bird, with the two legs acting as a support to push its large, flat body up on the next step. Then the legs fold themselves up behind its back, and then it deploys them again for the next step.

It took the Saros Rover approximately 30 to 40 seconds to climb about five large steps, so it’s certainly not very fast compared to a human, but it can and will clean each step as it moves up. It does that by using one leg for balance on the step below, then rolls itself up and down the next step to ensure it’s clean before moving on. This is notably something that Eufy told us that its Marswalker isn’t able to do, and the same is true of Dreame’s prototype model as well.

Roborock says that the Rover should be able to tackle both traditional and curved staircases, as well as different flooring types, included carpeted staircases with bullnose fronts. It’ll also help tackle other obstacles that may be present in your home, such as multilevel room thresholds.

A hopping and dancing robot

What impressed me the most about the Saros Rover is its ability to balance and maneuver itself. Gone are the days of a hesitant robot vacuum that slowly and tentatively edges around obstacles, as if unsure of its surroundings. The Saros Rover not only climbs stairs, it rises up on its wheel-legs for added maneuverability. This gives it increased reach, lift and height, which Roborock compares to human mobility.

Once it reached the top of the stairs that Roborock set up for the demos, I watched it go down a fairly steep ramp with impressive control over its speed. It was even able to stop partway down the incline and reverse, which is something I’ve never seen another robot vacuum do before. It’s able to make sudden stops and turns, and even hop, which Roborock demonstrated for me with a cute little dance involving the Rover, surrounded by Saros Z70 models waving their arms in sync to the beat, much like a group of fans.

It’s all very impressive to look at and there was only one instance where I saw the Saros Rover lose its balance and stumble a little, but it seemed able to right itself fairly effectively before one of the Roborock booth staff swooped it up. In all fairness, these are early prototype models, so some hiccups are to be expected, but what was striking is just how few hiccups there actually were.

The software is where the magic happens

Whatever software Roborock uses to manage navigation and object avoidance is impressive. Roborock told me that it uses an AI algorithm, working in conjunction with complex motion sensors and 3D spatial information, to enable the wheel legs to react to their surroundings.

Object avoidance has been a big challenge for robot vacuums and even the best ones we’ve recommended at CNET have had issues avoiding certain obstacles like pet waste. The problem is mostly on the software end rather than the hardware end, so if the Saros Rover is able to handle stairs, thresholds, inclines and other barriers, that puts it heads and shoulders above most other robot vacuums on the market, at least until we see the capabilities of Narwal’s upcoming Flow 2.

While Roborock didn’t demonstrate this for me in person, they also showed me a video from an earlier briefing of the Saros Rover dodging tennis balls thrown at it by Roborock engineers (sign me up for that job). I asked what the tennis balls are meant to represent in a real-world use case and company officials explained that it’s meant to showcase that the Saros Rover is able to identify and react to fast-moving objects in its environment that might get in its way, such as pets and children. As someone with three cats who enjoy zooming, I’m looking forward to seeing how it works with them and putting the Rover to the test at CNET Labs.

Price and availability unknown