'We've ruined many of James' Persian rugs over the years' — Dyson designer shares the development secrets of the brand's new robovac lineup

I got the inside scoop on the new Nurovi robot vacuums

by · TechRadar

Features By Ruth Hamilton Published 14 September 2026

(Image credit: Future)

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After a less-than-enthusiastic response to 2023's 360 Vis Nav, Dyson got the wheels rolling on its return to the robot vacuum market last year with its Spot+Scrub Ai. Now it seems momentum is building: this September the brand unveiled not one, but three new bots that would be joining the lineup.

There's the flagship R3 Nurovi Spot+Scrub UV — a successor to the Spot+Scrub Ai — alongside the R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry, and the R1 Nurovi Dry. I got a peek at all three at Dyson's IFA-adjacent launch event earlier in the month, and was intrigued to see some unique new features.

To get the inside scoop, I caught up with Nathan Lawson Mclean, a Dyson senior design manager who works across the brand's home products. Here are the five most surprising things I learned about the new Nurovi robot vacuum range...

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1. Triangle mops have been in Dyson's invention cupboard for years

The R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry has a rather unusual mopping setup. Instead of two circular discs, it uses a pair of rounded 'Reuleaux' triangles. These rotate 'eccentrically' — that is, the point of rotation isn't central. The pads move like a rotary engine, or a Spirograph, depending on your preferred analogy. The benefit is the shape can get much closer into corners.

What's interesting is that this design has been in Dyson's back pocket for a while now, just waiting to be added to a suitable product.

"These have always been in development," says Lawson Mclean. "I remember the first Reuleaux pads — those were initially developed back in 2019. We put it on the front of a brush bar in a cleaner just to try and get into corners. And what it ended up doing, you can imagine, [it was] a bit like riding a bicycle with square wheels. It caused too much ricocheting."

As shown above, one of the mop pads can extend to the side to get closer to room edges (Image credit: Future)

This is apparently not an unusual scenario at Dyson. "We're actually always developing these technologies in tandem," he continues. "It's just about what's the right timing; the platform that we're able to integrate it on. You'll see that we're starting to get to the point where we're packing [new products] full of our unique Dyson technologies."

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