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First time blogging here, so let me start off by saying hi to everyone. I am Michael, the product manager for the K10+ Pro. This year marks my sixth year in the robot vacuum industry. Over these six years, I have been deeply involved in designing and producing robot vacuums, witnessing their evolution from large toys to efficient household cleaning assistants.

From just sweeping to vacuuming and mopping, from relying on inertial navigation and bumping into obstacles to using LDS (Laser Distance Sensors) to generate high-precision maps — it’s evident that the core advancements in robot vacuums during this short time have improved immensely.

However, despite the impressive capabilities of modern robot vacuums, many people still prefer to clean manually rather than using a robot vacuum. Why is that?

The main reason is that areas like corners, under sofas, and beneath tables and chairs are often missed by larger robot vacuums on the market, meaning we still need to manually clean. This has become the primary challenge for all major robot vacuum manufacturers. Solutions like extendable side brushes for cleaning corners and using solid-state LiDAR instead of LDS to create thinner devices are being developed to tackle these issues.

But are these solutions the best? In my opinion, there is no “best” solution—only the most suitable one for your needs. Today, I want to talk about how we at SwitchBot have addressed these current challenges in K10+ Pro. So read on as I dive into the specifics of how K10+ Pro can meet your cleaning needs more effectively than ever before.

Challenge 1: How to Clean Room Corners?

Corners of rooms have always been a blind spot for robot vacuums. This is because the “hands” of the robot vacuum (the side brushes )cannot reach these troublesome areas.

So, the question arises, how can we make the side brushes of a robot vacuum reach into the corners? After numerous discussions with structural engineers and industrial designers, we came up with three potential solutions.

Solution A: Square-shaped robot vacuums.

Yes, by adapting the shape of the robot vacuum to match the shape of the corners, we can move the overall structure of the side brushes forward, allowing them to naturally reach into corners. However, this solution would make the robot vacuum larger overall, reducing its flexibility in scenarios involving tables and chairs.

Solution B: Telescopic arms.

If a quadrilateral-shaped robot vacuum compromises flexibility, how can we ensure a circular robot vacuum can clean corners effectively? Just like our own hands can extend, if the side brushes could extend, the corner-cleaning problem would be solved.

Solution C: Mini robot vacuums.

The reason side brushes on robot vacuums cannot reach corners is due to the robot’s large radius. Using the principles of an isosceles right triangle (just hear me out), where \(a^2 + b^2 = c^2\), if we make sides a and b short enough, the hypotenuse c becomes shorter, allowing the side brushes to cover the entire area, including corners… And who said maths wasn’t fun?

If we only consider the issue of cleaning along walls and in corners, all three solutions are quite good. However, there are many other nooks and crannies that need cleaning, such as under tables and sofas. In these places, neither the quadrilateral shape nor the telescopic arm would be effective.

And so… A mini robot vacuum solution seems to be the only right answer. Well, let’s look into this further…

Challenge 2: Handling low areas.

When it comes to corners, edges, under the bed, beneath sofas, and other low-clearance areas, as well as narrow spaces like those around dining chairs or ergonomic chairs, robotic vacuums often face significant challenges. If your vacuum isn’t low or small enough, it will get stuck and fail to clean properly. As a result, some users have complained, “I bought a robot vacuum, but every time before it cleans, I have to turn the tables and chairs upside down and place them on the table. It doesn’t free my hands at all.”
 
So how can we turn robotic vacuums into masters of small spaces? How can we enable robotic vacuums to clean under the sofa and bed? The key lies in reducing the height obstacle posed by laser radars. Generally speaking, again, there are three solutions:

Solution A: Use a solid-state laser radar.

Instead of using LDS laser radars, we can use solid-state laser radars embedded into the vacuum’s body. This approach can reduce the overall height of the vacuum from 10.5 cm to about 8.2-8.5 cm.

Solution B: Use an elevating laser radar.

Changing the radar is one solution, but is there a way to hide the laser radar? Indeed, there is an elevating radar that can rise when needed and lower when not in use. Typically, using this elevating mechanism can reduce the height to around 8.8-9.0 cm.

Solution C: Make the entire robot vacuum thinner.

While focusing on laser radar is one approach, another method is to redesign the entire vacuum to be thinner. Redesigning a robot vacuum is quite challenging, but we prioritized this solution. Below, I’ll explain why.
 
Aside from the challenge of navigating low-lying areas, another challenge for robot vacuum cleaners is how to clean narrow spaces, such as those around dining tables, chairs, and ergonomic chairs.

Solution D: Make it narrower.

There are so many narrow areas around the house—like the spaces between dining room tables and chairs, under coffee tables in the living room, around bookshelves and ergonomic chairs in the study, and even on either side of the toilet in the bathroom. Most robot vacuums on the market today have a diameter of around 35 cm. As long as a vacuum is made narrow enough, it can overcome physical space limitations and achieve thorough cleaning without missing any spots.
To become a master of corners, such devices must meet at least two criteria:
  • It should be narrow and thin enough to fit under and between most household furniture.
  • It should conform to the height and width constraints of the majority of furniture found in homes.
After conducting numerous rounds of research, we found that the height of most pieces of furniture found around our homes is between 9.5 cm and 10 cm, while narrow widths range from 28 cm to 30 cm. We opted for a solution that involved redesigning the overall structure—making it smaller. Ultimately, we achieved a height of 9.2 cm and a width of 24.8 cm, which allows it to maneuver freely even in complex environments like apartments and dining rooms.

Challenge 3: Cleaning around kitchen tables and legs.

There’s still one area that robot vacuums often miss—the space around the legs of tables and chairs. Even when we clean manually, it is easy to overlook this area. This challenge boils down to two main factors: “Can it see?” and “Can it reach?”
Let’s first talk about seeing. If you closely compare K10+ Pro with the previous gen, K10+. You’ll notice a new sensor on the side, called the PSD Sensor. This sensor detects objects like table and chair legs, as well as edges of walls, allowing your vacuum to navigate around and clean them while avoiding collisions. This sensor acts like eyes for the vacuum.
Now, what about reaching? In high-use areas like dining rooms, whether it’s the K10+ Pro or a $1,800 robot vacuum, both are equipped with a PSD Sensor. However, you may find that the larger robot vacuums can only clean a portion of the area around table and chair legs. The main issue is that large vacuums cannot get underneath tables and chairs, so they can’t clean the backside of the legs…
This is where the combination of both a mini body and PSD Sensor comes in handy. It allows the vacuum to get under tables and chairs and clean right up against the legs.

The higher the suction power, the better the cleaning performance?

When someone asks you:
What do you think makes a good robotic vacuum?
You might answer:
The higher the Pa rating, the stronger the suction, and the better the cleaning performance. Also, the larger the battery capacity, the longer the runtime.
This answer is both right and wrong. It’s correct in the sense that parameters are indeed one way to measure a vacuum’s performance. However, it is wrong because it doesn’t consider a real-world cleaning environment.
 
Let’s compare two vacuums with different suction power: 15,000 Pa vs. 3,000 Pa. If we look solely at the specifications, there’s no doubt we’d choose the one with 15,000 Pa. But in our daily lives, a suction power of around 2,000 Pa is more than sufficient for picking up common debris like cat litter, chips, or hair. 15,000 Pa would actually be overkill, with most of that power going unused. You might think that 15,000 Pa would perform better on carpets, and it does, but only by about 2%. What’s more important is whether the vacuum’s main brush can penetrate deep into the carpet to lift out debris. Additionally, higher Pa ratings often mean higher noise levels, which can be unbearable during nighttime cleaning.
So, higher numbers don’t always mean better performance. It’s essential to choose a vacuum that suits your actual home needs, rather than just opting for the most expensive one.

Bigger robot vacuums and bigger docking stations, are they better?

Just like the old joke in the smartphone world about the iPhone—saying that by the time the iPhone 100 comes out, its screen will be long enough to reach the moon. A similar trend is happening in the robotic vacuum industry. We see robot vacuums gradually getting bigger, and their docking stations growing larger too—some are already half our height. The reason they are getting bigger is mainly due to the mopping function. The vacuum needs a water tank inside, and the docking station also requires a clean water tank and a dirty water tank to add clean water and collect dirty water.
But do I need a mopping function when my entire home is carpeted? I don’t often drink juice or milk, and my floors only collect dust—do I need a mopping function? My home is already crowded; placing such a large docking station would only make it feel more cramped.
If you seriously consider these questions, you might realize that you don’t really need such a large docking station taking up space in your home. That’s exactly the insight we had. With K10+ Pro, we not only made the vacuum smaller to achieve 100% floor coverage but also reconsidered the requirements for docking stations in different living environments. We decided to make the docking station smaller—about the size of a 1-liter bottle of mineral water, so it could easily fit under a chair.
Taking mopping into account, we also innovatively developed a mopping cover that allows you to use household wet wipes for mopping. If you only want to mop occasionally, this is an ideal solution and also helps us achieve a miniaturized docking station.
Coming back to the current industry-wide challenge for robot vacuums:
How do we achieve 100% floor cleaning coverage?
We continuously brainstormed and experimented with different solutions, and ultimately, as you can see, the world’s smallest robotic vacuum, the K10+ Pro, was born. This is our answer to this industry-level problem.
If you have ever been frustrated with your robot vacuum missing areas around your dining table and chairs, or if you find it troublesome to lift and place your chairs on the table before each cleaning session, I believe you will love the K10+ Pro. Trust me, I’ve been doing this for 6 years.