 My life is overflowing with crumbs, schmutz, goobers of unknown provenance. As the father of two boys under the age of three, I face the Sisyphusian task of tidying a home which I know, just 12 hours later, will be a riotous mess once again. And over time, I've started to cut corners. I give my apartment a surface clean while deep below a dusty grime accumulates. To wage this kind of war, you need soldiers that won't tire. That in the face of a never-ending onslaught of new filth will simply suit up and clean. I needed a helper that knew no fear. Enter the robotic vacuum cleaner. There's an overwhelming variety of robotic vacuum cleaners on the market. Some are specialized for mopping the floor, others for getting rid of dog hair. For this story, we looked at the newest offerings from the biggest brands with basic cleaning capabilities. A Roomba, a Deebot, and a Neato. Let's start with the Deebot 35. It's cheap, under $200, but it can't see the world around it. It relies on touch, bouncing off objects, and adjusting accordingly. Using it is a supremely frustrating experience. The Deebot goes over the same areas multiple times, takes extremely inefficient routes, and gets stuck on pretty much everything. When you jump up to the Neato, which retails for around $700, the difference is clear. It still bumps off things as it moved around, but far less often. It uses laser scanning to map the space around it, and then sweeps the floor in smart, methodical patterns. It even circles around tricky areas like couch legs. It did miss corners and struggled to find its way back to the charging station, but at a basic level, it got the job done. The next step up is the Roomba 980, the most expensive and sophisticated unit we tested. It has a camera and floor sensor to track its location and avoid obstacles. I found that it was incredibly good at navigating my home and working its way into nooks and crannies. And when it needed a charge, the 980 was able to work its way back to the dock and connect. All of these units had one major problem, which was that in a house as messy as mine, they filled up their trays after just a room or two. You know, the Neato was doing great. It went under the couch, and then it sounded like, I don't know, maybe it got caught up in a little something. Just, you know, your typical sort of household casualty when you got a couple two-year-olds around. We'll keep using this toothbrush. That'll wash right off. Now, they all promise to have the power and capacity to clean an entire apartment, but to make that happen, you need to religiously run them every day, keeping the overall level of dirt down to a manageable level. Luckily, the newest Neato and Roomba we tested are now Wi-Fi enabled and could be remotely controlled by an app. That makes it far easier to program and pull off routine cleaning. Set a schedule and just let the robot run once a day, or if you prefer, start it when you remember, either in person or just with a few taps on your phone. In the end, I found the Roomba 980 was clearly the best robotic vacuum cleaner, but it isn't necessarily the best deal. The Neato Connected Bot Vac, which is $200 cheaper, left my house nearly as clean. Now, this isn't meant to be a comprehensive review so much as an introduction to the category. These are incredible gizmos, and we've never really talked about them at The Verge before. They're getting better every year, and if you've been holding off wondering how well they worked or if it was worth the money, let me erase your doubts. We haven't quite reached the Jetson era miracle of a completely autonomous robot that can clean your whole house, but the technology on the market today, especially for a busy parent like myself, is a huge asset in the daily batter against clutter and chaos.