Ascender: A two

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There are cleaning enthusiasts for whom dusting and wiping the floor with a mop is therapeutic. And then there's the rest of us, who will stall the dreaded chore for days on end. Saving our lives and energy for the last 25 years, the robot vacuum cleaner is a godsend. But what about stairs?

While it's not the world's first robovac (robot vacuum) which can climb stairs and clean them, the Ascender from Migo Robotics is promising to take it up a notch. "Multi-floor cleaning has never been so easy," says the company website.

With a two-in-one vacuum and mop design, the Ascender relies on LiDAR scanners for vision to climb stairs and can cover up to 5,167 ft. sq. of space. Calling it a transformer-based artificial intelligence solution, the company said that the LiDAR + Vision brings unprecedented environmental sensing and reconstruction ability.

The robovac can be controlled with a smart app and has a 6,000pa of vacuum suction performance. The two-in-one design means that it is able to both wipe up the dust using vacuum suction and clean spilled water from the surface.

As per the company's website, the user will be able to instruct Ascender using Amazon's Alexa.

The company has launched a super early bird offer at $999, which is $400 less than the expected price of $1,399. The robovac has a rectangular design and claims to clean even the toughest messes effortlessly.

While this is probably the first product that Migo Robotics has launched, the company claims that their team comprises experts from Google, Boston Dynamics, Dyson, and Ecovacs.

How it works is that it hoists its rectangular body to the next step of the stair while its two legs remain on the ground. Once the rectangular body is placed on the step above, the legs fold and lift themselves to join with the robovac. Then the Ascender gets to work just like any other robovac and cleans the surface.

Bloomberg reported that Dyson Ltd, a leading player in vacuum cleaners known for its cutting-edge design, has been working on designing a robot cleaner similar to the Ascender. It's speculated that apart from climbing stairs, Dyson's product will also be able to open drawers and interact with its environment.