Bollywood: Amazon Just Built A Robot, And You Can Buy It This Year For $999

It's long been rumored that Amazon has been working on a robot for people's homes, and today, that rumor became a reality with Amazon Astro. The evolution of Amazon's smart home technology has been moving at a rapid pace over the years. Since the original Echo launched over 7 years ago, Amazon's continued to find new ways to evolve the smart home. Echo smart speakers have gotten cheaper, Alexa's now available in a rotating display, and Amazon's Ring division is now selling a security drone that can fly through people's homes.

Over the past few years, there's been a lingering idea that Amazon has been creating all of this in preparation to eventually release a consumer-grade robot. Having a smart speaker or display is one thing, but having a robot that can follow someone wherever they go would take that experience to a completely different level. Following ample rumors and reports that Amazon's been secretly working on such a device, we finally got our first look at it.

Alongside announcements for the Echo Show 15 and Amazon Smart Thermostat, Amazon also unveiled Amazon Astro — the company's first-ever robot. The core idea behind Astro is to put the Alexa and Ring experiences into a single, autonomous device. As an Alexa gadget, Astro can do all of the things folks are used to. Whether that's playing TV shows, controlling smart home devices, showing reminders, etc., all of the usual Alexa commands work just the same on Astro. The Ring inspiration is seen with Astro's security features. When paired with the Ring Protect Pro subscription, Astro can "autonomously patrol your home when you’re out, proactively investigate when an event is detected, and automatically save video clips to your Ring cloud storage." If someone's ever wanted an Alexa display and Ring camera crammed into a tiny robot with wheels, that's essentially what Amazon Astro is.

Design-wise, Astro looks like something out of a science-fiction movie. It has two large wheels for getting around, navigation sensors to guide it through different homes, and a 10-inch display that sits atop all of this. To avoid Astro feeling like a moving Echo Show, a lot of work went into giving Astro a unique personality. It'll regularly move its virtual eyes, display, and body to react to different situations. Some might argue this all sounds a bit gimmicky, but when trying to make people feel comfortable with a robot in their home, little tweaks like this can go a long way. Sitting behind Astro's display is a periscope camera. It can pop out just above the screen for basic security monitoring, but if Astro needs to look over a table or counter, that camera can also extend up to 42-inches tall. Behind all of this is a small bin that can be used to store things in Astro to carry things throughout the home. People can use the bin for convenient storage or equip it with optional accessories (such as a cupholder for safely holding two drinks).

Astro is even more impressive with the technology that isn't readily visible. Users can manually control Astro from a companion app, but the primary way of interacting with the robot is by having it move on its own. This obviously requires a lot of money and research to get right, and based on what Amazon's saying, it sounds like they did exactly that. Astro is outfitted with a ton of autonomous navigation features. It can automatically detect stairs and obstacles to avoid them as needed, will follow out of bound zones set up by its owner, and uses on-device processing to recognize people in the home and show personal information (not unlike the Echo Show 15). This may sound like a security nightmare, but again, Amazon says it's thought of that too. Users can disable Astro's microphones and camera with the touch of a button. Additionally, Astro uses LEDs on the top of its camera housing to indicate when it's "streaming video or audio to the cloud."

What's even more impressive about Amazon Astro is the fact that it's not some far-off concept device that you'll never be able to buy. Instead, it'll be available for purchase later this year. Astro will initially be available for $999.99 through Amazon's Day 1 Editions program. People can sign up for a chance to buy Astro starting today, and if they're selected, they can complete their purchase and expect Astro to ship later this year. Once Astro exists this invitation-only program and is readily available to the public, it'll go up to $1,499.99. Whether or not it's worth that kind of money remains to be seen, but what is certain is that — like it or not — the future of Amazon robots is finally here.

Next: Researchers Find That Exoskeletons Can Help Stroke Victims

Source: Amazon

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September 29, 2021 at 12:01AM

Labels: ScreenRant - Feed