LG Electronics showcased its most ambitious robotics project to date at CES 2026, unveiling the LG CLOiD, an AI-powered home robot designed to handle real household chores including folding laundry, serving food, and assisting in the kitchen. The robot represents LG's vision for a zero labor home where intelligent machines handle everyday tasks through advanced robotics and connected home integration with the company's ThinQ ecosystem.
The CLOiD features two fully articulated robotic arms complete with shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints, along with hands equipped with independently moving fingers capable of grasping and manipulating objects. The robot's head functions as a mobile AI home hub, housing an advanced chipset that serves as its brain, a display screen, speakers, multiple cameras, various sensors, and voice-based generative AI capabilities that allow natural interaction with household members.
During a carefully choreographed 15-minute demonstration at the Las Vegas convention center, CLOiD showcased an impressive range of abilities. The robot demonstrated serving food to guests, fetching objects from around the home, providing fitness coaching, retrieving a carton of milk from the refrigerator, placing a croissant in an oven, sorting and folding laundry, and handing keys to a human presenter. The robot can also adjust its own height and use its articulated limbs to lift, fold, and stir various items.
However, real-world testing by technology journalists revealed significant limitations in the robot's current capabilities. According to CNET's hands-on evaluation, CLOiD took approximately 30 seconds to fold a single towel and could not independently retrieve items from a laundry hamper, requiring a human assistant to lay out each towel for it. Tom's Guide noted that subsequent folding sessions took up to a minute per towel, and the robot failed to stack the folded items in a neat pile, somewhat negating the purpose of the folding exercise.
LG emphasized that CLOiD is designed to operate autonomously when household occupants are away, initiating laundry cycles, folding and stacking garments after drying, and preparing the home for residents' return. The robot connects seamlessly with LG's ThinQ smart home ecosystem, allowing it to coordinate with other connected appliances and respond to voice commands through its integrated generative AI assistant.
For now, LG has positioned CLOiD as a concept demonstration rather than a product destined for immediate retail availability. Industry analysts estimate that when such technology eventually reaches consumers, it could carry a price tag exceeding 20,000 dollars, based on the cost of similar robotics platforms. The demonstration nonetheless represents a significant step toward the company's long-term vision of household automation.
The unveiling comes amid intensifying competition in the home robotics space, with multiple technology companies racing to develop practical household assistants. While current robot vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers have achieved mainstream adoption, humanoid robots capable of complex manipulation tasks like laundry folding remain largely in the prototype stage. LG's CLOiD suggests that fully automated household help may eventually become reality, though significant technological and economic hurdles remain before such robots become commonplace in homes.
