Narwal Robotics is a relative newcomer to the household robot market, having been founded in 2016. But you'd never know this was a rookie effort based on the company's hardware. Its first product, the Narwal T10, is a phenomenal robot vac/mop hybrid that delivers several features you won't find anywhere else. But you need to use Narwal's app to control the device, and that experience can be tear-your-hair-out frustrating. As good as the hardware is, no manufacturer should expect its customer to pay $1,199 for its product and then have to wrestle with a half-baked app to use it. This profile shot of the Narwal T10 shows one of its mopping pads in close contact with the floor underneath it.

LAS VEGAS--iRobot demoed its updated line of robot floor cleaners at CES 2011, showing off a more powerful Roomba vacuum bot and a much more compact Scooba floor scrubber. Roomba hoovered some crushed Cheerios, while Scooba got to work on a coffee-stained tile floor. Both robots go on sale this spring. They're similar to their predecessors, but have important differences. Both updates have the iAdapt cleaning tech, a sensor and software system that monitors the floor more than 60 times per second and chooses from dozens of robot behaviors to get the job done, the company says. I played around with the Scooba 350 last year, and wasn't crazy about its bulk, which proved a bit of a pain when emptying the cleaning fluid tanks.