When iRobot released their Roomba in 2002, it was an immediate and unprecedented success. This set off a wave of innovation and invention that has only heated up more recently. There are now over a dozen companies worldwide producing robot vacuums. With each new generation of vacuums, small improvements have been made to battery life, navigation, object avoidance and overall cleaning power. While we are still quite far from a Rosie robot like many of us dreamed about thanks to The Jetsons, that day is perhaps not as far off as some might believe.

Our robot vacuum buyer’s guide should be a boon to anyone hoping to hop into the robot vacuum marketplace. And, needless say, there are a lot of options to choose from. But as with all new technologies, some of the products on the market are excellent examples of modern engineering, while others are horrendously embarrassing for everyone involved. We’re here to help you sift through all of the technical mumbo jumbo in order to figure out which robot vacuum best suits your needs.