The Aiper Scuba V3 robotic pool cleaner introduces AI computer vision to spot and collect underwater debris. WIRED's review highlights its performance in cleaning floors, walls, and waterlines, though notes limitations in battery life and scheduling. Priced at $1,000 on sale, it covers up to 1,600 square feet.
Aiper's Scuba V3 continues its line of treaded pool robots with a boxy dark gray design accented in blue, weighing 18 pounds. It features a central roller brush for scrubbing pool floors, walls, and waterline, powered by a 10,400 mAh battery that offers a maximum three-hour runtime and takes five hours to charge fully via a simple dock—no cables required during use. The dock has a hinged leg design for easy setup, and the robot beeps when properly placed for charging, inclined to aid water drainage. The 3.5-liter debris basket includes a secondary washable ultrafine mesh liner, recommended for replacement every 30 runs. Key to its appeal is the AI vision system with front-mounted cameras and two LEDs for low-light detection, trained on 20 debris types to differentiate from obstacles. This enables on-the-fly path adjustments toward leaves, pebbles, and other material. A mobile app connects via Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, offering modes like floor-only (with optional AI), wall, waterline, and auto (AI always active). Scheduling includes calendar-based options (e.g., 90 minutes x 2) and AI Navium, which analyzes past runs to suggest routines but proved unreliable in testing, often ignoring set times. In tests, the robot cleared organic debris in under three hours, achieving 96% cleanliness on synthetic debris despite limited runtime. It signals completion by climbing to the waterline and sending app notifications but sinks after 10 minutes if not retrieved. Cleanup involves hosing the baskets, though the mesh is tricky when wet. Logs track time and area but had incomplete debris counts. At a list price of $1,400 (currently $1,000), it suits pools up to 1,600 square feet, though large-pool owners may balk at the battery life.