Vacuum robots have become almost essential household appliances because they significantly facilitate cleaning. The most modern models offer advanced features, such as environment mapping, which optimizes the cleaning process and ensures that all areas of the rooms are vacuumed.
The Xiaomi S40 features a design similar to traditional vacuum robots, constructed with matte plastic. On top, there is a small tower housing the laser sensors, along with two buttons: one to turn the device on and another to instruct it to return to the base. It has sufficient height to pass under most sofas and beds, although the laser tower requires attention if the furniture is very low.
The dust and water reservoirs are located internally and require manual removal for waste disposal and water addition. At the bottom of the device are the rubber wheels and brushes. The main brush was designed to minimize hair and fur entanglement, although the user may still need to manually remove trapped threads in certain instances.
Following the standard of most current robots, the Xiaomi S40 offers a triple function: it vacuums, sweeps, and performs mopping, integrating everything into a single cleaning cycle. It has good suction capacity, adequate for removing everything from fine dust to larger debris, such as bread crumbs and pet food. The motor operates at four power levels, with higher suction power resulting in a higher noise level.
For the mopping function, the robot uses a microfiber cloth attached to the base, complemented by a water reservoir that gradually releases liquid. Although it is a valuable aid in housework, it is important to note that it does not have the ability to scrub the floor; its action is limited to surface dirt. For heavier stains, such as kitchen grease or dry spots, using a conventional floor cloth remains the most effective solution.
Overall, the Xiaomi robot demonstrates good performance on various types of floors, showing some specificities. On cold surfaces, such as porcelain tiles, laminates, and hardwood, it manages to capture accumulated dirt in the crevices, finishing with the removal of residual dust through the wet cloth. The rubber wheels ensure that the floor is not scratched during operation.
When encountering thin rugs and carpets, the device automatically increases suction power to collect dirt embedded in the fibers. However, there is a caveat: the model may get stuck or jam the wheels on thicker, shaggier carpets or those with long fringes, making it unsuitable for these types of cleaning. In such cases, it is recommended to adjust the map in the application so that the robot avoids such carpets.
A prominent feature of the Xiaomi S40 is its environmental mapping system, which allows the robot to understand the layout of the rooms and plan a more efficient cleaning trajectory. This mapping is performed by the laser positioned on the device's upper tower. The usage process is simple: on the first cleaning run, it generates the map, which can be viewed in the smartphone application, and begins cleaning in straight lines, avoiding random movements.
The sensors are also responsible for preventing sudden collisions with walls and preventing falls down stairs or steps. If the residence is a duplex or has multiple floors, the application allows for the storage of different maps. However, the user must manually transport the robot and the base to the desired floor before cleaning. Centralized control occurs through the Xiaomi application, available for Android and iOS, which displays the house map in real time, showing the area already covered and the remaining battery charge. It is possible to define virtual walls in the app to restrict the robot's access to dangerous areas, such as the pet's water bowl.
Through the application, it is possible to segment cleaning by room, allowing you to program higher suction power for the living room and lower water usage when cleaning the wooden floor in the bedroom. The software also notifies the user about worn parts, such as filters and brushes, that require maintenance or replacement.
Laser navigation combined with the customization offered by the application configures the Xiaomi S40 as an excellent vacuum robot for those seeking more features than basic models. The device demonstrates the ability to understand the house layout without getting lost, and the customization via the app is efficient. It has satisfactory suction power for its category and handles daily dirt well.
On the other hand, the device still requires manual intervention from the user, since the dust reservoir is not emptied automatically, requiring frequent opening for filter cleaning, depending on the size of the house. An additional limitation lies in the mopping function, which only performs basic tasks and does not replace a deep clean with a traditional cloth. Furthermore, it may have difficulties with certain types of carpets.
This robot is highly recommended for individuals who want to keep the house clean daily without the constant need to sweep or vacuum manually. It proves to be a great ally for medium or large apartments and houses, and the laser navigation facilitates managing various rooms without disorientation.
It is also indicated for homes with pets that shed a lot of hair, as the suction system is effective and the brush retains threads well without constantly jamming. If the focus is on eliminating daily dust and seeking more features than elementary models, this robot is a great choice. However, if the need is for a more intense cleaning, it will not fully meet expectations.
Xiaomi has expanded its presence in the competitive Chinese automotive market by introducing the new family of SUVs called Skynomad. This line, comprising the N70 and N90 models, represents the brand's entry into the extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) segment.
All vehicles in the Skynomad line will be equipped with a 76 kWh ternary NMC battery pack supplied by CALB. This battery set allows for travel of up to 505 km using only electric mode, according to the Chinese CLTC cycle. Furthermore, the total weight of these models is remarkably low, reaching only 400 kg.
This strategic change is considerable, given that Xiaomi previously focused exclusively on fully electric models. Now, the company has adopted the REEV (electric with range extender) architecture. This approach combines daily electric use with combustion support for longer journeys, a formula that has appealed to Chinese consumers by mitigating range anxiety. Rivals such as Li Auto, AITO, and Deepal have already succeeded with this same tactic.
It is important to note that the combustion engine does not directly drive the wheels; it functions solely as a generator to recharge the battery. This 1.5-liter engine, producing 150 hp and manufactured by Harbin Dongang, a subsidiary of Changan, results in fuel consumption ranging between 16.4 km/l and 15.9 km/l, depending on the SUV size. However, the mentioned 505 km refers to the CLTC cycle, which is more optimistic; under the stricter WLTC standard, the range drops to the 363 to 380 km range.
The Skynomad N70 features five seats, measures 4.96 meters in length, and has a wheelbase of 2.95 meters. It can be equipped with a rear engine of 282 hp or an all-wheel-drive system that raises the combined power to 416 hp. Previous regulatory records also indicated a more affordable entry version, utilizing a 52 kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery supplied by Sunwoda.
The top-of-the-line model, the N90, is a larger SUV, presenting a length of 5.28 meters and capacity for six passengers. It features all-wheel drive and the same combined power of 416 hp. In previews released by Xiaomi itself, the N90 was shown with an interior inspired by minivans and front seats with 180-degree swivel functionality.
This announcement comes at a strategic time for Xiaomi. The company closed the first half of 2026 with 185,055 units sold, representing a 17.2% increase compared to the same period last year, and maintains the ambition to sell 550,000 cars by the end of the year. The company expects the Skynomad series to be fundamental in achieving this goal. The official launch of the N90 is scheduled for August 21 during the Chengdu Auto Show, a prominent industry event in the country.
Xiaomi has introduced Robotics-U0, a multimodal autoregressive generative foundational model with 38 billion parameters. This model is the first in embodied artificial intelligence to be capable of simultaneously processing four different categories of tasks for robots within a single architecture.
The model covers four key functions. Firstly, embodied scene generation allows for the creation of multi-view initial scenes for specified robotic equipment based on text descriptions. These environments can range from kitchens and tables to warehouses and open spaces.
Secondly, the embodied transfer function enables the migration of existing robot trajectories into new environments. During this process, lighting, background, surface materials, target objects, or workspace style are changed while preserving the manipulator's original poses and the overall scene composition.
Thirdly, robot interaction video generation creates subsequent video frames based on initial observations and action instructions, maintaining movement coherence and physical consistency, as well as demonstrating generalization capability in previously unseen scenarios (zero-shot generalization).
The fourth capability involves retaining general text-to-image conversion and image editing functions, allowing knowledge from the visual internet to be applied to embodied AI tasks.
Robotics-U0 demonstrated high results on the WorldArena benchmark among 126 participating global models. In real-world tests with robots under out-of-distribution conditions, unknown lighting, and unfamiliar backgrounds, strategic task completion rates improved by an average of 26% after training on data augmented with Xiaomi-Robotics-U0.
The model is capable of improving existing data by maintaining geometric consistency—for example, by changing objects, lighting, backgrounds, or adding clutter—without the need to collect new data. Furthermore, it can generate entirely new scenes covering dangerous, extreme, or rare environments inaccessible to physical robots.
To enhance generation efficiency, the model utilizes the UNIS acceleration architecture, which increases performance by approximately 83 times compared to the base autoregressive paradigm, thereby significantly lowering the barrier for engineering implementation. This makes large-scale generation of training data for embodied AI a controlled and efficient solution, eliminating one of the main bottlenecks in embodied AI development where data scarcity limits the growth of model capabilities.
The open release includes a full project page, a code repository on GitHub, model weights on HuggingFace, and a collection on ModelScope. This represents one of the most comprehensive open contributions from a Chinese consumer electronics company in the field of embodied AI, following the deployment of Xiaomi's robotic factory and positioning the company as a fully functional player in embodied AI, encompassing hardware manufacturing, real-world deployment, and fundamental model research.
