'It'll light up your home like a bowling alley' — Dyson's new Nurovi robot vacuum has a UV light to show up invisible spills, and I'm not sure I'm ready to see what's on my floors | Tech Radar
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'It'll light up your home like a bowling alley' — Dyson's new Nurovi robot vacuum has a UV light to show up invisible spills, and I'm not sure I'm ready to see what's on my floors
I saw it in action and got the insider scoop from a Dyson designer
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Dyson has launched three new 'Nurovi' robot vacuums
The R3 Nurovi Spot+Scrub UV has a roller mop and UV spill detection
The R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry has two Reuleaux triangle mops, which move asymmetrically for no-gap cleaning
The R1 Nurovi Dry is a vacuum-only bot, with no mopping
Dyson just unveiled a new fleet of robot vacuums with plenty of intriguing features. The range is called 'Nurovi' which is a portmanteau — the bots combine "Neural Intelligence technology" with Dyson's new "Vision system". It makes sense, but if anyone can remember how to spell it without checking, I'll be impressed.
There are three models in the lineup: the R3 Nurovi Spot+Scrub UV and R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry are both hybrid machines that can mop as well as vacuuming, and the R1 Nurovi Dry is a vacuum-only option.
I had a chance to check them all out at Dyson's IFA 2026-adjacent event in Berlin. Here, I also chatted to Nathan Lawson-Mc Lean, a Senior Design Manager at Dyson, about the development process.
Let's start with the flagship model: the R3. This is a second-gen upgrade of last year's Spot+Scrub Ai, and like that model it's designed to 'spot' concentrated messes and spills and scrub back and forth over them to clean them away. However, the R3 model's spill-spotting skills are powered by UV light.
The R3 Nurovi Spot+Scrub UV has a UV light to illuminate invisible spills (Image credit: Future)
"We continue to leverage our in-house vision systems and neural intelligence, to really build on this advanced stain detection," Lawson-Mc Lean tells me. He explains that whereas with the Spot+Scrub Ai, Dyson focused on identifying a range of specific stains, here the team worked on tackling the invisible residue left by dried liquid spills. The UV light causes those stains to fluoresce.
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"So as the robot's running around your home on its mission, it will now expose these totally invisible stains that become breeding grounds for bacteria," he explains. "And it will then go over it once, turn around, check, and repeat that movement."
I ask him what kinds of stains the system can tackle, and he tells me it's a wide range, including most sugary drinks, tonic water, sparkling water and milk. "I'll be honest with you, because I find you'd be surprised what fluoresces — a bit like a bowling alley in your own home," he adds.
Moving on to the R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry. A key difference between this and the R3 is that the R3 uses a roller mop for wet cleaning, whereas the R2 uses two spinning mop pads. Not just any spinning mop pads, though: rather than the circular pads we're used to seeing, Dyson has harnessed its geometry skills and given us a couple of Reuleaux triangles. You know — that triangular shape formed from three circular arcs.
The R2 has curved triangular mop pads the move in concert, like a Spirograph (Image credit: Future)
Cleverly, the shapes move in tandem to create a straight-edged mopping finish with no center gaps — and they can get right into the corners of rooms too. As you can see in my photo image above, one of the pads can extend out to one side, to clean closer to the edges of rooms.
Both systems use heated water (158°F / 70°C on the R3, and 167°F / 75°C on the R2) to help cut through grease and tackle dried-on dirt. The heating part happens at the dock, rather than within the robot vacuum itself, to conserve battery. Some cooling will naturally take place as the mopping continues, but Lawson-Mc Lean explains to me that the robovac is designed to return to the dock to top up with hot water when the on-bot reservoir drops below a certain temperature.
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The R2 has a sister model: the Dyson R1 Nurovi Dry. It's essentially an R2 but without the mopping functions, so those looking for a simpler and more afforable entry into the robovac market.
Both the R2 and R1 have a 'Twin-capture system' which separates fine and coarse debris in order to improve cleaning efficiency. "So traditional robot vacuum cleaners will just have one roller. And the balancing act is, well, I need to have a really open aperture to get large debris, — let's say like fusilli pasta, sweetcorn, things like that — but actually, when it comes to getting effective fine dust pickup from the floor, if I have a huge open aperture, all that airflow is wasted," says Lawson-Mc Lean.
The solution was to have a large, open brush bar area for chunky particles, and a separate area for the fine dust, with, as Lawson-Mc Lean describes it, "a highly concentrated and efficient airflow path that's sealed down to the floor."
The roller on the R2 is designed to be able to handle chunky debris, and there's a second inlet (at the top in the image) focused on fine particles (Image credit: Future)
Finally, both the R2 and R1 boast another feature ported over from Dyson's most advanced stick vacuums: a piezo sensor that intelligently detects the size and amount of dust around, and the floor type, and adapts its suction power to suit. The aim is to deliver an efficient clean without wasting any battery. This intelligent adjustment will kick in if the bot is set to Auto mode.
The R1 (left) and R2 are sister models, with very similar vacuuming setups (Image credit: Future)
Dyson has a chequered history when it comes to robot vacuums. The Dyson 360 Vis Nav suffered from a too-high price given its feature set, and was crippled by navigation issues. Last year's Spot+Scrub Ai wasn't quite a roaring success, but did go some way to repairing the brand's robot vacuum reputation. Will Dyson continue its upward trajectory with these new launches? I'll be watching with interest.
From Dyson US, the Dyson R3 Nurovi Spot+Scrub UV robot vacuum is scheduled to go on sale on 15 September, at a list price of
At Dyson UK and Dyson Australia, the R2 and R1 went on sale yesterday (4 Sept) at a list price of £749.99/ AU
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