iRobot Roomba Duo is the Transformers of robot vacuums — and we just saw it live
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Credit: Tom's Guide
Popular robot vacuum maker iRobot heard you like robot vacuums, so it put a robot vacuum inside your robot vacuum so you can robot while you vacuum. If you get what I'm referencing, then you might be old like me.
But the funniest part of my joke here is that I'm not actually joking. The new Roomba Duo prototype from iRobot, which the company showed off at IFA 2026 , is actually a robot vacuum with a smaller one inside, designed to help it get into tight spaces and perform jobs the big unit — which is quite capable in its own right — can't.
"The Roomba Duo represents a real leap forward in how we're reimagining home robotics," said Hao Li, CEO at iRobot. "Instead of asking one robot to do everything, we've built specialized robots that work together as a single intelligent system."
What we know about the Roomba Duo
Credit: Tom's Guide
The new robot vacuum prototype offers more cleaning power than most others on the market thanks to its large size. It offers a large main robot that vacuums and steam-mops, which could let it clean more like a person with a big vacuum and mop. iRobot says it offers "true floor-washing capability to robotic floor care."
From there, a little robot is deployed when it needs to get somewhere tight. This should let it navigate through the same spaces a traditional robot vacuum can. In fact, the current prototype uses the Roomba Plus 575 Combo Robot as its smaller internal robot, so you would literally get a fully featured robot vacuum as the deployable mini.
Of course, there's the requisite app that lets the human homeowner intervene and control both robots, but that's not new in the robot vacuum space.
Tom's Guide Video Producer Tom Antill saw a demo at IFA 2026 and was impressed by the functionality if offered.
"This replaces the need for a standalone vacuum, as I can get deeper cleaning with that larger unit, and it also offers steam cleaning, Antill said after seeing the device firsthand on the show floor. "It also has the extending mop pads and can get under tight areas when the large unit can't."
Roomba Duo price and availability
Credit: Tom's Guide
Sadly, as this is a prototype in the testing phase, there's no word on when we'll be able to welcome the "Pimp My Ride" of robot vacuums into our homes.
The company was also tight-lipped on price, so we'll have to wait until it's closer to release (assuming it actually does) to know how much it'll cost. The Roomba Plus 575 Combo Robot is $699.99 as of this writing, so we can safely guess it'll cost at least double that.
Will this make it to our best robot vacuum page when/if it comes out? I'll bet it does, but only time will tell.
