Amazon has unveiled Astro – a moving robot designed to wheel itself around your home, keep an eye on intruders, and even keep your kids occupied.
Cute, evil, or a bit of both? Amazon has just unveiled Astro, a moving robot designed to wheel itself around your home, keep an eye on intruders, and even keep your kids occupied. At the close of Amazon’s September launch event, which saw a host of gadgets from new Halo fitness trackers to Blink video doorbells, we got our first glimpse at the device, which looks to combine the smarts of Amazon Alexa with the navigational systems of a robot vacuum, the display of an Echo Show, and the travelling camera capability of the Always Home Cam indoor drone. In short, it’s a very complicated, very ambitious thing for Amazon to release. With two primary wheels for motion and a third, smaller wheel at the back to help with navigation, Astro can zip around at one meter per second. A periscope camera shimmies out of Astro’s head to take a good look at things above floor level, such as what foods and spices are on your kitchen shelves. If it sounds like science fiction, that’s certainly Amazon’s aim – with repeated claims that, „within a decade“ such robots will be commonplace in the home. Whether you believe that or not, it’s clear Amazon wants to take a shot at owning that market. As with Amazon’s range of Ring video doorbells and cameras, a big part of the messaging around Astro has to do with security. A press release states that „When you’re away, Astro helps provide the peace of mind that comes with knowing your home is safe.
