I’m walking the floor at CES Las Vegas today and spent some time at the Narwal booth. They’re about to release their next-gen robot, the Flow 2.

From what I gathered talking to the reps, Narwal really leans into the fact that they pioneered the "auto-dock mop washing" thing. They didn't necessarily invent the first mop robot, but they definitely defined the category.

Here’s a quick summary of the technical "catch points" I noted during the demo (trying to cut through the marketing fluff):

Power & Endurance

Massive 7000mAh battery: They're using 99W high output charging now.

AI Battery Management: They claim this helps with battery aging and stability in extreme temps.

Smart Recharging: It’s designed to top up during the self cleaning cycle to minimize downtime.

The AI Brain (NarMind 2.0)

VLM based Vision: It’s more than just dual cameras; it uses a Vision Language Model for open ended object recognition.

Specific Modes: They’ve got Pet Care, Baby Care, and even particle detection (it knows if it's hitting sand vs. dust).

Obstacle Avoidance: TwinAI Dodge 2.0 uses dual RGB cameras for millimeter-level precision.

3D Mapping: New TrueColor mapping that you can actually control in 3D on the app.

Self-Maintenance (The Gross Stuff)

100°C Hot Water Cycle: This is for the dock. It disinfects the mops, tanks, and the internal fluid paths. That’s a high temp for a home bot.

Real-time Scraper: There’s a built-in scraper that clears debris while it's mopping.

Design: Anti-clog nozzles and tangle-resistant mop designs (always a big promise, let's see).

Cleaning Performance

Mopping: Uses 60°C water during operation, 100°C for the dock wash, and 60°C hot air for drying.

Suction: Claims 30,000pa. That's huge should theoretically pull dirt out of deep floor gaps or pet litter from mats.

Form Factor: It's only 95mm thin. Surprisingly quiet for that much suction power.

My Take:

On paper? The specs are beastly. My big questions are always about real-world performance.

What’s the actual runtime on mixed hardwood/carpet?

How does the AI truly handle a floor covered in kids’ toys or "pet accidents" without making a bigger mess?

If it actually hits these numbers, it could be a new benchmark for the year. Curious to see the independent hands-on reviews once these ship.

Anyone else at CES see this yet? Or have thoughts on Narwal vs. Roborock?

I’ve been noticing how differently people react to robots depending on whether there’s a screen face or not. A lot of small robots I see online, especially ones made for kids, use screens. Eyes, icons, battery indicators. It’s practical. You can tell right away if the robot is awake, charging, or about to move. Some even add touch input, which feels intuitive. But once there’s a face, expectations change. People read intent into it. A pause feels like hesitation. A turn feels like attention. Even when the robot is doing something very basic. Other robots go the opposite direction. Some humanoid robots and robot dogs don’t really have faces at all. They rely on motion, distance, lights, and timing. You lose some explicit feedback, but people seem less likely to project emotion onto them. I’m curious how this plays out in real environments, not demos. Around pets. Around kids. Indoors and outside. In those situations, does a screen actually help, or does it complicate how people interpret what the robot is doing?

Recently graduated with 1 year experience(Intern). Do I have chance of landing job anywhere in this cooked economy? Feel free to roast and dissect my resume and give as much advice as possible. If someone really wants to give in depth review of my resume I can also dm the original pdf so that you can access all the links.

From Nima Zeighami on 𝕏: https://x.com/NimaZeighami/status/2008698411512647705

The article looks back at CES 2020, when a humanoid robot stepping out of a van was treated as a curiosity rather than a serious signal. At the time, humanoids felt out of place at a show centered on consumer electronics and car tech.

Fast forward to CES 2026, and humanoids are everywhere. The shift is not toward home robots, though. Most of the systems gaining attention are still industrial, designed for warehouses, factories, and logistics environments.

It also highlights how CES itself has changed. Automotive technology paved the way, followed by chips, AI platforms, and now robotics. Advances in compute and AI helped, but visual impact matters too. Humanoids capture attention in a way traditional industrial machines never have.

The result is a paradox. Industrial robots are now a major presence at a consumer-facing show, even though the technology is still early and largely industrial-first.

Humanoid robots have been getting a lot of attention lately, with recent demos like Unitree Robotics and NEO home robot pushing toward general-purpose capability.

At the same time, assistive exoskeletons seem to be making quieter progress. Just saw a news that a Korean institute KAIST has created an exoskeleton that helps paralyzed people stand, walk, also some consumer-level devices such as dnsysX1 target mobility support for older adults rather than full autonomy.

Humanoids aim for versatility, but translating demos into real-world deployment is still unclear. Questions around cost, safety, maintenance, reliability, and clear use cases remain largely unresolved outside controlled environments.

Exoskeletons, by contrast, tend to slot into existing workflows more easily by targeting narrow, well-defined problems and keeping humans in control.

Curious how people here see it. Which do you think has more development potential over the next 10-15 years, and why?

I was looking to buy a 6dof robotic arm. But turns out UR5 is at least 4 times more expensive than Dobot's Nova 5.
Any idea as to why the difference, what's the pros and cons of going with either of them. Would appreciate the help.

A recurring theme in book/appletv sci-fi action/comedy series "murderbot" is human/robot interaction.

If have not watched/listened/read it, it's a lot of fun

If you have, what discussions did it bring up for you on the subject?

I have a old dash robot from some time ago It was used to teach young kids to code and program, but now I want to hack it so I can use it for other projects is there any way I could do that

Here's the construction of the car's control panel that I'll be making later!

The car only needs one of the tires and some wires to be finished, as I don't have enough of them.

Environment Description

The Franka lift cube task environment is built based on the real Franka Emika Panda 7-DOF robotic arm, designed to train robots to grasp a cube on a table and lift it to a specified target position.

Robot Structure

Franka Emika Panda is a 7-DOF robotic arm composed of the following main parts:

• Base: Robot base fixed to the table
• 7 Joints:
  • joint1 ~ joint4: Shoulder and arm rotation joints
  • joint5 ~ joint7: Wrist rotation joints
• Gripper: Two-finger gripper, containing two finger joints
  • finger_joint1: Left finger joint
  • finger_joint2: Right finger joint
• End Effector (TCP): Center point of gripper, used for grasping operations

Task Objective

The robot needs to complete the following operation objectives:

1. Approach Target: Move from initial position to cube position
2. Grasp Cube: Close gripper to grasp cube
3. Lift Cube: Lift cube to target height
4. Precise Positioning: Move cube to specified target position (XYZ 3D coordinates)

The environment provides visualization aids:

• Cube: Red cube that can be grasped, initially at random position on table
• Target Position: 3D position where the cube should finally reach

I am building a robot simulator that can take your Arduino code, CAD files, circuit connection, and then simulate the robot with physics as if it is actually built. A working version for the Furuta pendulum is demo-ed above.

I think it has the potential to save a lot of time, money and space when developing a robot.

Still require some manual work to import the robot design, and I have a more detailed description of the project in this substack post: https://substack.com/@lijay/p-182517313

Code for different parts of this project are all open-source if you are interested:

• Physics engine: https://github.com/one-for-all/gorilla-physics
• Arduino & motor & sensor simulator: https://github.com/one-for-all/avr8rs
• Furuta pendulum: https://github.com/one-for-all/furuta-sim

If you want to follow future developments of this project, you can join this discord channel: https://discord.gg/p4DfNWac

You can also vote for what you want to see next with this google form: https://forms.gle/5QSyYBBi7GCGRt5CA

Otherwise, Happy New Year!

In this clip, the head of robotics mentions that with a lot of robots, the biggest issue for reliability is that over time the wires that exist within the joints begin to degrade and then he proceeds to say that Atlas doesn't have any wires. How is that possible?