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How Robots Work

A home robot is a box of compromises: brushes, fans, cameras, cliff sensors, and a small computer trying not to eat the charging cable. This series opens that box. In How Robots Work, Home & Robot walks through the parts and decisions that decide whether a machine cleans the floor or decorates the baseboard with potting soil. We cover seeing, choosing, gripping, rolling, talking to the rest of the house, and the ugly physics of suction and scrub — in language a homeowner can use, without the brochure version. Read these when you want to know why a robot does what it does, what it cannot do yet, and which specs actually matter in a lived-in house.

More on How Robots Work

An image inspired by Andy Warhol's style representing how robots see
How Robots Work·September 7, 2026
How Robots See

We often assume robots see the world the way we do, through a pair of high-definition biological lenses. The reality is much stranger.

Michael Rand
High level schematic on a TV showing how a robot thinks. A robot is standing in front of the TV.
How Robots Work·September 4, 2026
The Brain in the Box: How Robots Make Choices

This article examines the specific hardware and logic that allow a machine to look at a sock and decide whether to vacuum it, avoid it, or ask for help.

Michael Rand
Robot in a room with no WiFi looking at a house plant.
Robot Proof Home·September 2, 2026
Why your robots need full home WiFi coverage

Modern home robots depend on WiFi for command and awareness: navigation updates, task confirmation, status streaming to an app. Cut the WiFi and they're lost.

Michael Rand
Robot on staris
How Robots Work·September 2, 2026
Cliff Sensors: Why Your Robot Isn’t Afraid of Stairs

Discover the "invisible eyes" that prevent your robots from becoming a pile of floor-scrapings from falling over.

Michael Rand
Robot near furniture
How Robots Work·August 31, 2026
The "Ouch" Factor: How Sensors Protect Your Furniture

To confidently bring a robot into the sanctuary of the home, it needs to avoid breaking our household items.

Michael Rand
Dog shaped robot looking at objects on the floor in a home.
How Robots Work·August 28, 2026
Object Recognition: How AI Knows a Shoe from a "Pet Accident"

Examines the mechanical and digital process that allows a robot to read the room, and make decisions like if it sees a shoe or a "pet accident".

Michael Rand
A warm, inviting photograph of a living room in the late afternoon. A sleek, modern floor-cleaning robot is seen in the distance, silently cleaning near a bookshelf.
How Robots Work·August 24, 2026
The science of the scrub: how robots actually clean

Cleaning is a fundamental chore, yet it remains one of the most mechanically complex tasks we assign to machines.

Michael Rand
A wide, atmospheric shot of a modern home interior at dusk. A robot is shown in the center of the living room, standing still, with its mechanical arm extended toward a small childs stuffed teddy bear on the rug. The lighting is warm and domestic, emphasizing the integration of the machine into the home setting rather than a sterile lab environment.
How Robots Work·August 24, 2026
Meet the "hands": The frontier of a robots reachable world

We want robots capable of handling different items across various contexts, effective enough to pick something up, move it, and set it down without breaking it.

Michael Rand
A small pancake shaped robot evaluating uneven terrain to determine if it can proceed.
How Robots Work·August 24, 2026
Wheels, Legs, Treads: How robots navigate the home landscape

Somewhere in your house right now, a robot is staring at the edge of a rug and running the numbers on whether today is the day it finally makes it across.

Michael Rand