Ring’s new drone patrols your home to keep an eye on things – even upstairs

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Today, Ring announced the launch of a new subbrand, Ring Robotics, with two new products: the $249 Ring Drone Cam, an indoor “mobile security camera” drone that shoots 2K video, and the $999 Ring Rover Cam, a security robot for businesses that patrols autonomously and investigates disturbances.

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Both devices use Ring’s custom navigation software, “AI Pilot,” to autonomously navigate interior spaces and move between set points along a patrol, rather than being controlled directly by the user. AI Pilot leverages the devices’ cameras, sensors, and vision models, along with cloud processing, to create interior maps, then move the devices between predesignated patrol points such as a side door or a window.

Ring Drone Cam: An autonomous security camera

The Ring Drone Cam moves around predetermined patrol points in your home, sending you a live 2K video feed whether you’re just in another room or out of town. The user doesn’t actually fly the drone; instead, it moves around autonomously using Ring’s custom “AI Pilot” navigation technology, leveraging its cameras, sensors, and cloud processing to create a map of its surroundings. This allows it to fly through the air at an appropriate height, going from room to room, even up stairs.

In the Ring app, the user creates patrol points they want the drone to move between — likely a window, doorway, or high-traffic room — creating a set path that is both predictable (so you always know where the drone will go) and relevant, so it’s only monitoring the areas you want it to. But here is where its limitations come into play: It needs a finite path to navigate because its flight time is limited to just five to eight minutes in the air before it has to return to its charging dock.

That makes the dock both the start and end point for the drone’s routine trips, and it’s designed with this in mind. When it goes to land, the drone hovers over the dock and lowers itself down, dropping into place so it can start charging automatically. I asked about its potential to land elsewhere, and Ring told me it would only make an emergency landing outside of its dock in case it didn’t have enough power to get home.

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There’s one other very important caveat: This thing is loud. There’s no sneaking up on anyone with the Ring Drone Cam, as the entire household is likely to hear it the second it undocks. The four propellers emit a constant, high-pitched whirring while in the air that’s loud enough to announce its presence to anyone in the vicinity: intruder or resident.

During the product briefing, Siminoff insinuated that this was part of its design to dissuade home intruders snooping around your house at night (especially when paired with the drone’s front-facing spotlight), but it’s likely just the result of its engineering, especially considering this is a first-gen product. It’s so loud that it makes me think it’s better suited to navigating the home when no one’s home (although whether or not your pets go bonkers trying to catch it is a whole other issue).

The Ring Drone is designed to work out of the box with the existing Ring ecosystem, including the 2K Video Doorbell and Indoor Cam, and is also compatible with Amazon’s Map View.

The Ring Drone Cam will start shipping on Jan. 27, 2027, and will cost $249.

Ring Rover Cam: Mobile workplace surveillance

The other product Ring announced is the Rover Cam, a mobile robot with a 4K camera designed to monitor large spaces like warehouses, offices, or businesses. Ring calls it a “security guard that never clocks out,” but it’s more like a slow-moving droid that goes on set patrol paths. It leverages the same AI Pilot technology as the Ring Drone to map its surroundings and navigate around shelving, furniture, and obstacles in real time.

It’s much quieter than its airborne sibling, traveling at low speeds and offering mobile surveillance instead of wiring every square inch of a large space. If the technology here looks familiar, it’s because it resembles the Amazon Astra, a smaller robot designed for home monitoring but with a very similar build.

The idea here is to deploy the robot to certain areas of a workplace via the app, then get 360-degree views once it’s there. Like the drone, it can also set out on automated routes at select timing intervals — like right after a business closes or before it opens. During working hours, it chugs along with its camera, capturing everything in its view.

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If another Ring device is triggered, the Rover Cam autonomously goes to investigate the disturbance, providing 4K footage in real time via the app. It also features a periscope camera that can extend to see over obstacles like shelving, counters, or furniture, providing a high-level view if needed. In case you lose it in a large warehouse or office, it has a “light tower” that projects light upward onto the ceiling, notifying users of its location.

Even when docked, it uses motion-sensing technology to start recording the second it senses any kind of movement, just like Ring doorbell cameras. In case of an emergency, the Rover features a siren and red flashing lights to dissuade intruders.

The Ring Rover Cam is available for preorder now and will start shipping on Dec. 16, 2026. It will cost $999.

Kyle Kucharski

Senior Editor

Kyle Kucharski is a Brooklyn-based writer and Senior Editor at ZDNET. He's interested in emerging technologies and all things futurism, and when he's not covering new laptops, he's writing about music and speculative fiction. See full bio

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