Best Home Robots to Make Your Life Easier in 2023

If you grew up anytime between 1962 and 1992, you’ve probably seen a few episodes of the Hanna-Barbera Productions cartoon The Jetsons. This futuristic show promised us a lot of advances, from flying cars to a robotic maid named Rosie, who handles household chores. Now, The Jetsons was set in 2062, so we’ve got a few decades left to reach those goals, but that doesn’t mean that you have to live without a household robot in 2023. Here are some of the best home robots you can bring home today to help make your life a little easier.

Clean the House

Does anyone like cleaning their house or vacuuming the floors? One survey found that 73% of respondents in America feel like their homes would be cleaner if they had a robot to do their chores. While we might not have Rosie the Robot to do all the chores, there are a few tasks that we can delegate to our robotic companions. The iRobot Roomba j7+ is the latest incarnation of a robotic vacuum that’s been around since 2002.

These tiny round robots can vacuum up everything from dirt to pet hair and make it a lot easier to keep your home clean. The new j7 and j7+ models have a front-facing camera to help them navigate your house without bumping into anything or anyone. They also offer Alexa support, so you use voice commands with your Amazon Echo to control them.

Mop the Floors

Vacuuming is excellent, but what if you’ve got all tile floors? It would help if you had a robot that can take floor cleaning a step further, and that’s where devices like the iRobot Bravva Jet m6 come in. The same company that created the Roomba vacuum has also released a mopping robot to keep those tile or hardwood floors clean. Using the companion app, you can even program your iRobot devices to work in tandem, keeping the floors as clean as possible without you having to lift a finger.

You could also go for the new Roomba Combo j7+, which handles vacuuming and mopping in a single robot. This combo option comes with a hefty price tag, but it’s cheaper than buying a Braava and a Roomba vacuum separately.

Mow the Lawn

Robotic assistants aren’t limited to indoors anymore. The WORX Landroid is a programmable robot that you can use to mow the lawn. An onboard shock sensor helps it remove obstacles from its path, allowing it to work in narrow spaces and angles up to 20 degrees. It isn’t water-resistant, but it’s equipped with sensors that tell it to return to its charging station when it’s raining or when the battery is running low. Kick your feet up and let the Landroid tackle outdoor chores. 

Alternatively, you could use the Greenworks Pro Optimov 50H, which is water-resistant. That lets it work in the rain and makes cleaning easier, as you can rinse it off with a hose. However, it doesn’t have as many connectivity options or smart features as the Landroid.

Clean the Windows

Clean windows mean you can enjoy plenty of natural sunlight in your home, but keeping them clean — especially if you have a multi-story home — can be an exhausting task. Why not let your robotic window cleaner do the job for you? However, to autonomously clean your windows, though you must move it from one window to the next. It will even cling to the window for up to 30 minutes after the battery dies. Use the included remote control or the companion app to control the robot, or you can choose to let it steer itself as it cleans every nook and cranny of your windows.

Scrub the Pool

Who doesn’t love spending the afternoon lounging in the pool? Of course, that only applies if you don’t have to spend the entire day scrubbing algae off the walls of the pool before you can enjoy it. The Dolphin Nautilus CC Plus is like a Roomba for your swimming pool, though it works best in smaller pools. This robot will clean your pool automatically. Schedule it to clean your pool daily or less frequently, depending on the buildup of debris or algae. All you need to do is clean out the filter once in a while. 

Dolphin also offers a more premium package with its Triton line of pool cleaners. The Triton works much like the Nautilus but is faster, bigger and can tackle more stubborn messes. It also has Bluetooth functionality that lets you control it from your phone, including programming it to run on a custom schedule.

Clean the Grill

Cleaning your grill before your next cookout isn’t a particularly hard task, but why do it at all when you can program a robot to complete the job for you. The Grillbot uses spinning nylon, copper, or steel brushes to clean the cooking surfaces. Just put it on your grill, start the cleaning cycle, and you’re good to go. For being an incredibly convenient robot, it’s also remarkably affordable. For just over $100, you will never have to clean your grill by hand again.

Keep the House Safe

Robots can do more than help you clean things around the house. Bots like the newly unveiled Amazon Astro can offer peace of mind by acting as security guards. Astro patrols your home while you’re not there, and you can use your phone to check its live video feed at any time from anywhere. Astro also works as a handy robotic assistant when you are home. It can follow you around, play songs or shows you like, take messages, set reminders or make calls.

Control the Thermostat

The easiest way to reduce your home’s carbon footprint and shrink your utility bills is to turn your thermostat up when you’re not home. Unfortunately, before in-home robotics, this meant having to suffer through a warm home in the summer or a cold one in the winter while you waited for your HVAC to catch up. In-home automation gives you the ability to adjust your home’s temperature remotely. Some even come with the ability to change the temperature based on the weather, a timer, or even your proximity to home. 

In 2023, you have more options for smart thermostats than ever. The Matter smart home standard is finally rolling out, which will help you connect devices that previously couldn’t work together. Advancements like this make it increasingly easy to have a fully functioning, autonomous smart home.

Empty the Litterbox

We love our furbabies, but let’s be honest here — no one likes cleaning the litter box. Why not let a robot do it for you? Pet tech company Whisker has been making robotic litter boxes for a few years, but its latest version, the Litter-Robot 4, offers more high-tech features than ever. In addition to providing a self-cleaning feature, this box uses a system of sensors to monitor cat activity, litter levels and waste drawer fullness. These handy features tell you exactly when to empty or refill your litter box. 

The Litter-Robot also analyzes your cat’s habits and waste to offer insight into their health, like tracking their hydration and weight. This can be extremely valuable for cats with health problems or older felines needing more TLC to stay healthy.

Till the Fields

Autonomous cars are becoming more common, but what about autonomous tractors? Robotic tractors might be coming sooner than you think if John Deere has anything to say about it. It’s working on creating self-driving, fully autonomous tractors to help farmers worldwide cope with labor shortages and climate change, winning a Best of Innovation award at CES 2023.

The autonomous tractor uses a system of cameras, GPS guidance and sensors to move without a driver. It also includes soil sensors to determine how much fertilizer each seed needs, dispensing the exact amount while planting. Features like this will help farmers feed the growing population while cutting down on agricultural waste.

Cook Your Food

Creative endeavors are often thought of as being beyond the reach of robots. Even if we could manage to create a sentient AI, could it, in turn, create something new? If you’re not worried about creativity, robotic chefs could be cooking your meals shortly. As long as you’ve got the ingredients, a robotic chef could potentially cook you anything. Plug in a recipe and see what sort of tasty treats it can create for you.

Robot chefs are already in service across the U.S., and thousands more restaurants will use them within the next few years. What does that mean for you as a customer? You could get a pizza in just 45 seconds with the same level of service and quality every time you order. If nothing else, telling your friends a robot rolled your burrito is pretty cool.

Brew Your Coffee

Most of us can’t survive without our morning cup of coffee, but the line at Starbucks is often too much to bear. CES 2023 debuted a solution — ADAM, the robot barista. ADAM can work as a barista, boba tea specialist or bartender, using millimeter precision and moving at 3 feet a second to make drinks faster and with more care than you could hope to at home.

ADAM may not be the kind of bot everyone can keep in their home, but you could find it at a coffee shop near you before long. It might not have the love that your barista puts into your morning cup of joe, but if you’re more concerned with speed than sentimentality, it could help you get your morning caffeine fix.

Welcoming Our New Robotic Overlords

We joke about our new robot overlords, but the age of robotics is coming. It just won’t look like Terminator. Instead, robots will be able to work alongside humans to help make our lives easier. Even something as simple as a Roomba vacuuming the floor can make an enormous difference for someone who finds vacuuming difficult. You may find more robots in your home than you know what to do with sooner than you expect. 

And, if the robot uprising does happen, saying that we welcome our new robotic overlords can’t hurt our chances of survival, right?