Amazon has announced a robot for the home. The robot Astro is a smart assistant on wheels and, according to Amazon, is capable of performing various tasks around the house, such as fetching things, playing music, and answering questions.
Become a robot assistant shown At an Amazon event, The Verge also attended. According to the medium, the Amazon Echo’s Astro is on wheels. Amazon claims Astro can navigate to different rooms in the house, as long as they’re on one level. Astro can be used, among other things, to make video calls, play music, or request weather forecasts.
Astro is equipped with a 10-inch touch screen and navigates on wheels with a diameter of 30 cm. The robot weighs about 9 kg. The screen has a 5MP camera at the top of the frame with which you can make video calls. You will have to bend over for this, since the robot is located just below the knee of an adult. Thankfully, the robot also gets a 12MP periscope camera, which allows for more calls at eye level when you’re sitting in a chair, for example.
Moreover, Astro has a container in which small things can be placed. Then Astro with his payload can be sent to a specific place in the house by voice command. So you can bring a small thing to your roommate without having to get up. This is also one of the few additional apps that Astro seems to have compared to Amazon’s regular smart speaker. For example, the robot does not have an arm to perform the functions, and Astro cannot get out or go up stairs.
Amazon wants to continue developing Astro and mass-producing the robot in the next phase. The manufacturer expects the final consumer price to be $1,500. Amazon plans to release the first version of Astro later this year. The first version will cost $999.