Every year at IFA Berlin someone tells you the future has arrived. This year, walking the halls, I actually believed it.

Robots mowing lawns. Robots cleaning pools. Robots washing windows. And parked in the middle of a few stands, robots that walk and move like us.

EFTM Snapshot: Forget the sci-fi hype, Ecovacs’ CEO says humanoid robots are a real five to ten year prospect, arriving alongside, not instead of, the vacuums, mowers and pool cleaners already doing the job in Australian homes.

I spent some time speaking exclusively with David Qian, CEO of Ecovacs Robotics, one of the biggest names in home robotics, to ask him straight out, when do we get an actual humanoid robot in our homes?

His answer was surprisingly specific. Five to ten years.

“You know, we are all now in this wave of AI,” Qian told me. “It’s empowering all of us, whether it’s our devices or when we speak with an agent or a chatbot. But when we build a product, we think about how do we use AI in those products.”

The vision he laid out isn’t a single all-purpose robot butler replacing everything you already own. It’s more like an ecosystem, robots specialising the way animals do in the wild.

“We will be living in a world where we have different types of robots living amongst us, like animals in the wild,” he said. “They develop over the years to best adapt to the environment they should be in. That’s why you see in our portfolio, we have robots that can clean your windows, vacuum your floors, mow your lawn, clean your pool.”

And that’s the key detail. When the humanoid does arrive, it won’t be doing your vacuuming.

“Even if the humanoid comes into our lives, I don’t think that we think we need to buy a push mower for the humanoid robot, because you already have a robotic lawnmower,” Qian said. “That robot will be destined to do the things that these products have covered but cannot do.”

Walking the dog. Cooking the barbecue. Folding the laundry. Qian rattled these off like they’re inevitable, not science fiction.

“There’s an endless list of possibilities of what that robot can do.”

Ecovacs Isn’t Just A Vacuum Company Anymore

It’s easy to forget, given Ecovacs built its name on robot vacuums, that the company now sees itself as something much broader.

“Everybody knows Ecovacs because of our robotic vacuum cleaners, but actually our mission at home, and in our hearts, is robotics for all,” Qian said. “The goal has never been just to say we want to develop the best robotic vacuums. We think about all types of robots that we can make that empowers people’s lives.”

That’s the thinking behind Ecovacs pushing into robotic lawnmowers with the Goat and pool cleaners with the Ultramarine, both using AI to recognise what’s actually in front of them, whether that’s a rock, a leaf or a garden hose to avoid.

I asked whether more competition entering these new categories, lawn mowers, pool cleaners, makes life harder for a company that used to have the robot vacuum space largely to itself.

“I think overall, I’m happy to see where the industry’s going,” Qian said. “Robots is a big market, it has huge potential. It will really change how we interact with the world, how we interact with ourselves, because it gives us more time to ourselves.”

Time, over and over, is the thing Qian keeps coming back to.

“We have a metric at home. We look at how much time we save our customers,” he said. “Everybody’s equal because we all have 24 hours to ourselves, whether you’re rich or poor. If we’re able to create some value for our customers there to save some time for them, that brings a lot of happiness for us.”

The Robots We Already Own Aren’t Changing, They’re Getting Smarter

None of this means the robot vacuum sitting in your hallway right now is on its way out. Qian was clear that the fundamentals of the category are locked in. What’s changing is what’s happening under the hood.

“The robots that they have in their home today compared to three or five years ago is so much better,” he said. “They’re much more intelligent.”

He points to the Osmo X12S as the clearest example, a robot vacuum that can now tell the difference between an actual stain on your floor and a printed pattern on the tile, and adjust its cleaning accordingly.

“If you have kitchen, you’re making a mess on the floor, based on the ability to recognise stains compared to maybe if it’s a pattern on tile, it’s now doing cleaning on a more precise level.”

Battery life and charging speed are next on the list, according to Qian, along with more AI creeping into every corner of the range, not just the vacuums.

“Whether that’s on the Goat, in your yard recognising things to avoid, or in the robotic pool cleaner, the Ultramarine, using AI as well to detect debris, leaves, rocks. It’s getting smarter.”

Australia’s Backyards Threw Ecovacs A Curveball

Robotic lawnmowers aren’t new overseas, but they’re only just hitting their stride here in Australia, where we’re now spoiled for choice with brands like Worx, Mammotion, Mova, Roborock, Terramow and Ecovacs all competing for a spot in the shed.

Part of the reason it’s taken longer to land here properly is that Australian backyards genuinely confused the engineers building these things.

“I learned that the grass is different in Europe compared to Australia and the US,” Qian admitted. “And even the soil, the temperature. I also realised that pools are quite different in Europe than Australia and the US.”

With Ecovacs now pulling more than half its revenue from international markets, getting that local detail right isn’t optional anymore. Qian called it “a positive challenge” his engineers actually enjoy solving.

What About The Fear Factor?

Smart glasses with cameras have already made some people nervous. Add AI, then add robots that look and move like humans, and you’ve got a trust problem waiting to happen. I put that to Qian directly.

His answer looped back to the same idea underpinning everything else he told me: robots earn their place by giving people time back, not by being clever for the sake of it.

“The products that we create, ultimately we want that robot to be in people’s lives to enrich their lives, save time for them, empower their human lives,” he said. “The feedback I’ve gotten from our customers is they’re extremely happy to bring one, two, three robots into their lives, because now it saves so much of their time. I think even when the humanoid robot comes, it will be just like that as well.”