Samsung first introduced its rolling robot Ballie at CES six years ago. Since then, the company has regularly updated the concept, introducing a new design with an integrated projector in 2024 and adding AI features last year.
At CES 2025, Samsung promised that Ballie would launch later in the year, but that never happened. Now a new report suggests the project may have been postponed indefinitely. Although Samsung hasn’t made an official announcement, Bloomberg reports that the company has changed its plans. Instead of launching Ballie as a consumer product, the robot will now serve as an “active innovation platform” for internal use only.
In a statement accompanying the release, Samsung said: “After several years of real-world testing, it continues to shed light on how Samsung designs spatially aware, context-driven experiences, particularly in areas such as smart home intelligence, ambient AI and privacy by design.” Ballie’s technology, the company added, will continue to shape future smart home devices, even if the robot itself never hits shelves.
Samsung is discontinuing its rolling robot as competition increasingly relies on humanoid helpers
While Samsung may have shelved Ballie, other brands are pushing ahead with their AI robot ambitions for smart homes. However, in contrast to Samsung’s rolling design, LG and SwitchBot rely on humanoid robots to help with housework. LG has not yet announced pricing or availability details for its CLOiD robot, which is designed for tasks like cleaning and laundry.
SwitcBot plans to soon open pre-orders for its onero H1, a robot butler demonstrated to autonomously navigate homes and help with routine tasks like making coffee and folding laundry. Whether these robots actually reach consumers remains to be seen.
