68 November/December 2021

T h e Te s t

10

// B Y B R A D F O R D //

F

OR SOME OF US GROWING UP, OUR VISION OF THE FUTURE

was filled with f lying cars and robots that did our work

for us. While the hovering sedans of the Jetsons have yet

to materialize, robot vacuums, on the other hand, have

arrived. And, while they don’t look like George’s Rosie,

these wafer-shaped, dirt-sucking automatons have come

of age. Costing from a bit under $200 to over a thousand,

they boast a wide range of features and technolog y. And given that

there’s a lot going on under the hood, so to speak, we had to develop

several in-depth tests to get a fair gauge of their performance.

Setting

the Robot

Vacuums

Loose

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TREVOR RAAB