I’d by no means have guessed that shopper and industrial drone producer DJI would ever contemplate bringing a robotic vac to the eating desk, however I used to be unsuitable. And when you consider, why shouldn’t they? In any case, the corporate’s wonderful squadron of drones are able to following customers by means of troublesome terrain, even by means of woodland with tree branches in every single place, with breath-taking accuracy and pace.
Provided that navigation and impediment avoidance are conditions of any profitable robotic vac, it makes good sense to make use of established drone navigation tech in a robotic vac, or perhaps a robotic garden mower. And since DJI would presumably by no means dream of sharing its navigation expertise with anybody else, they could as nicely make their very own robotic vac. And that it did.
I’ve already given the brand new clear DJI Romo P a really beneficial evaluate after placing it by means of its paces and watching it work over the course of every week. I additionally spent numerous time analyzing its cleansing energy on each onerous flooring and carpet. Nevertheless, one side of this new upstart has really amazed me and that’s its extraordinarily good impediment avoidance.
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DJI has put its expertise with obstacle-detection to good use with the Romo P (Picture credit score: Future)
In reality, I feel that the DJI Romo P’s impediment avoidance represents one of the crucial technologically refined navigation programs but deployed in a shopper robotic vacuum cleaner. Not like low-cost and easy robotic vacuums that depend on bumper switches or primary infrared sensors, the Romo P combines twin fisheye imaginative and prescient sensors with three solid-state LiDAR models that, in line with DJI, convey ‘millimeter-level impediment sensing’ into the house.
When mixed, this multi-sensor information permits the Romo P to determine not simply giant, primary obstacles like furnishings legs and partitions, but additionally extraordinarily skinny obstacles as slender as 2mm in thickness. And this implies it is usually a dab hand at dodging skinny cellphone cables of any size, a myriad of toys together with Lego bricks and, if approached head on, even flat objects like practice tickets and taking part in playing cards. This degree of discrimination is sort of vital as a result of credit-card skinny gadgets are among the many hardest for robotic vacuums to detect.
Navigation and impediment sensing {hardware} in itself solely gathers information however making clever selections from that information is equally necessary. Therefore, DJI and, it have to be stated, different huge gamers like Roborock and Dreame, additionally incorporate onboard machine studying algorithms — together with AI-assisted studying — of their premium bots that interpret the mixed sensors’ inputs. These algorithms allow the robotic to acknowledge several types of obstacles and select essentially the most acceptable plan of action.
The Romo P can detect completely different sized objects and take essentially the most acceptable plan of action (Picture credit score: Future)
Generally it should weave near slender legs of furnishings to scrub close by, whereas different instances it should give a large berth to most smaller objects. This contextual consciousness apparently helps reduce cleansing interruptions and prevents the bot from getting caught or inadvertently spreading messes, which is one thing I noticed when the Romo P actively averted a big dollop of tomato ketchup in my evaluate’s mopping take a look at.
I’ve additionally seen the logical routes the Romo P takes each time it performs a activity, and I can solely assume that that is additionally all the way down to its spatial consciousness and talent to carry out nearly human-like motion by means of a maze of obstacles.
For my evaluate take a look at I attempted to show this and arrange an assault course utilizing a wide range of gadgets each giant and small. I used to be frankly amazed on the pace with which the Romo P navigated its approach across the obstacles with out stopping for a breath or knocking something over. In reality, it was like watching an Olympic slalom skier in motion.
The Romo P boasts one of the crucial technologically refined navigation programs but deployed in a shopper robotic (Picture credit score: Future)
Anyway, this obtained me pondering. So for this text I arrange one other two, much more excessive assessments and never solely focussed on the Romo P, however enlisted the assistance of my trusty Roborock Saros 10R, one other robotic vac with very respectable impediment avoidance.
What to learn subsequent
By the best way, the Romo P affords three ranges of impediment avoidance within the DJI Dwelling app: Impediment Avoidance Precedence, Commonplace and Cleansing Precedence. For the next assessments I chosen the Commonplace mode as a result of it higher balances the hole between cleansing and avoidance.
Roborock Saros 10R vs DJI Romo P impediment assessments
I’ve been utilizing the Roborock Saros 10R since April 2025 and, together with its stablemate the Saros 10, it is likely one of the finest bots I’ve ever had the pleasure of reviewing. So I believed I’d see how nicely it faired towards DJI’s new Romo P on the subject of negotiating a difficult impediment course.
For this comparability take a look at I rigorously positioned a variety of obstacles together with canine toys of assorted sizes, cellphone cables of various lengths, three titchy diffuser oil bottles, a small leaflet of stamps, a mock practice ticket, a packet of cigarette papers, two skinny black lids, a silver spanner, a small screwdriver and a sock.
I created two completely different assessments as a result of I wished to see if both bot had realized from earlier errors. Nevertheless, I can’t categorically say in the event that they realized something from Take a look at 1 as a result of I’ve by no means seen any robotic do precisely the identical factor twice. They’re robots, in spite of everything, they usually fairly actually have minds of their very own.
I pitted the DJI Romo P towards the Roborock Saros 10R (Picture credit score: Future)
Anyway, again to the 2 assessments which began with the Saros 10R adopted by the Romo P. Each fashions have been commanded to go from their dock positions (the Saros within the corridor and Romo within the lounge) and head to the kitchen over a patterned rug. They have been then commanded to return to the dock.
Though they have been each coming from completely different areas, I made positive that each bots got equally difficult duties, or as shut as I may get it. Setting each robots to depart from the identical space would have entailed remapping the entire dwelling on one of many bots and I merely didn’t have the time or, for that matter, the inclination. Nevertheless, because the video demonstrates, each bots confronted equally complicated assault programs.
Take a look at 1
Roborock Saros 10R
The Saros 10R fortunately jaunted into the room and easily headed straight over the cigarette papers and one cellphone cable however then made an excellent fist of reaching its aim with out inflicting any chaos in about one minute. Its return journey was extra haphazard and it rode over a small cable and the stamps and, after having a great suppose with it’s digicam going through the cigarette papers, it determined, what the heck, and continued onwards, carrying the packet into the corridor earlier than depositing it because it approached its base station. Its return journey took 35 seconds.
DJI Romo P
Now it was the Romo P’s flip, and for this I chosen its ‘Commonplace’ impediment avoidance mode which is the best choice for higher cleansing efficiency. Immediately it turned in the direction of the spanner and, fairly disappointingly, rode proper over it. Typical! It additionally rode over the e-book of stamps earlier than persevering with with a bizarre detour round a small cellphone cable. Nevertheless, it nonetheless accomplished the duty in simply 48 seconds.
Its return journey was additionally a bit wayward and took precisely one minute although it did look the small screwdriver (comprehensible) and rode over the stamps. However this time it stopped on the spanner earlier than detouring round a hair scrunch earlier than returning to dock.
I’ve to say that each of them carried out extraordinarily nicely on this take a look at and I used to be particularly stunned by how adeptly the Saros 10R dealt with the course. Nevertheless, the Romo P was clearly rather a lot faster to finish the duty.
Take a look at 2
Roborock Saros 10R
The Saros 10R approached the cigarette paper packet and pushed it apart earlier than heading over the black cellphone cable. It then rigorously labored its approach between the 2 diffuser bottles earlier than noticing it had run over the quick cable and reversing. It then continued, glancing a small black plastic cap earlier than working over the second, finishing the duty in 45 seconds.
Its return journey was much less profitable. It instantly rode over the black cap and, after a while pondering on the small bottles, ran headlong over the black cable, which it dragged a lot of the approach dwelling. Time: 38 seconds
DJI Romo P
An ideal gold-medal run. This time the Romo averted all the things, together with the spanner, the cigarette paper packet, the stamps and each black caps. An incredible achievement in 48 seconds flat.
Nevertheless, Rom(e)o obtained very cocky on its 50-second journey dwelling and rode over the screwdriver, stamps and cigarette packet (twice) as if it had had sufficient testing for sooner or later and simply wished to get dwelling as rapidly as doable. You’ve obtained to giggle.
Take a look at 3
DJI Romo P
For this last take a look at I used simply the Romo P and chosen it’s ‘Impediment Avoidance Precedence’ mode which additional enhances its navigation capabilities for ultra-cluttered houses. I even added some smaller obstacles like a skinny piece of cardboard, together with the black caps and stamp booklet from the earlier assessments. Whereas the Romo P did a bit extra pondering and a few detours, it nailed the run with no main points to report aside from its facet brush tampering with the skinny slice of cardboard. One other gold-medal consequence.
Whereas these assessments on no account signify the actual world (a minimum of I’d wish to hope so), they simply go to indicate how refined the navigation is on each of those fashions. But whereas the Saros 10R’s impediment avoidance could be thought-about completely acceptable for on a regular basis situations, I’ve to offer the successful rosette to the Romo P for a extra correct and speedy strategy on the subject of general navigation and the perfected artwork of impediment dodging.
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