Floor type sensors: If your home features a lot of transitions from carpet to tile, a robot vacuum that knows the difference is crucial for a streamlined clean. In the dry sweeping realm, this just ensures that carpeting is dealt more intense suction while keeping suction on tile or hardwood quieter. For robot vacs that mop, carpet recognition will keep your hybrid from getting soft floors wet.
Carpet detection when mopping: Some lower-end hybrid vacuums go into full mopping mode automatically once their water tank is attached, requiring you to take the mop on and off (or create a zone in the app, if that's an option) depending on the room being cleaned. Smarter mopping robots can be trusted to wield their mopping pad 24/7, as they know to pause the water flow and lift their wet cloth above the carpet. This level of meticulous avoidance is particularly clutch for tiled bathroom floors with bath mats or tiled kitchen floors with runner rugs.
Vibrating scrubbing: Don't expect a robot vacuum to tackle grout gunk as well as a steamer or good old elbow grease. But robot vacuums that actually scrub, like the sonic vibration mopping performed by high-end Roborock and Shark robot vacuums, are more likely to successfully wipe up dried food droplets or footprints than hybrids that just drag a wet cloth across the floor.
Smart mapping: A robot vacuum's navigation tech decides whether or not it's equipped to adhere to virtual boundaries (or be stuck with those ugly magnetic strips). LiDAR, a laser that scans different points in your home to determine where walls are, will be particularly handy if you can see yourself only wanting to clean specific rooms (like the kitchen after dinner) on certain days. This mapping precision also allows you to set up zones that you'd like the bot to avoid, like a pile of toys or your pet's water bowl.
