Amazon introduces its home robot. Robot Astro is a robotic companion that has been created to keep watch over your home, as well as over you as a person. Using it’s periscope camera and microphone, as well as a touchscreen, the robot can autonomously navigate your house to investigate security issues or follow you while on a video call.
Astro will be able to play music, videos, and podcasts, set timers and answer questions through Alexa, like many other Echo devices. Customers will be able to turn off the microphones and cameras, set ‘out-of-bounds zones’ in their home, and turn on ‘do not disturb’ to limit how much the robot can move.
Amazon’s Astro has its own personality that beat-boxes, beeps, and squeaks, and it has eyes because, as Amazon’s engineers explained in a video aired during Tuesday’s annual hardware event, that is how humans primarily communicate. The engineers said that Astro wouldn’t be their company’s last robot.
Dave Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president of devices and services, said onstage at the event that every household will have at least one robot in the next five to 10 years. Amazon said that Astro will initially cost $ 1,000 and include a six-month trial subscription to Ring’s Protect Pro – ultimately it will cost $ 1,449.99. Amazon plans to offer Astro by invitation only and start shipping to US customers later this year.
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Insider’s Eugene Kim reported last March that Amazon had been building the robot for at least four years and that over 800 employees were working on the project, codenamed ‘Vesta’. According to one employee, many were skeptical about the project internally and one said there were concerns it would fail, referring to Amazon’s failed smartphone project.
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