Amazon has unveiled its latest innovative home assistant robot on wheels, named Astro. The Amazon Astro will cost $1,000 and Amazon is offering an opportunity for potential buyers to request an invitation to buy it because it is a limited-version product.
The Amazon Astro bears a similar name to a futuristic pet dog in the Jetsons TV series of the 1960s. The Amazon Astro seems to be the culmination of different technological inputs from robotics, artificial intelligence, home monitoring, and cloud services. It seems to be Amazon’s most ambitious home system product so far. Amazon’s Astro may just signal the beginning of a vigorous stage of in-home product development for the ultimate home robot, capable of doing virtually everything that could be thought of.
It looks a bit futuristic that an ultimate home robot will become a reality but the development in this area is rapid. The Astro, according to Amazon is capable of a variety of activities that could be expected from a home robot. It can map the home, obey commands to go to specific rooms, has face recognition capabilities that enable it to deliver items to specific persons. Amazon’s Astro also offers the functionality in Alexa by providing tons of details and information from the weather, and can also be used for a video call. Amazon’s Astro will follow you wherever you go, thus keeping you in the frame all through the video call.
Amazon’s Astro can also provide safety and security cover in your home when you are not around. It can roam around the house to make sure nothing is amiss in the house. It can also deploy third-party apps and accessories to record key body functions like your blood pressure.
As pointed earlier, the Astro is possibly the first step in the evolution of the perfect home robot. There are several things it cannot do which are basic functionalities expected of what could be seen as the ultimate home robot. For a start, Astro does not have arms, cannot move on stairs, and has a whole lot of basic skills. We are sure that Astro would not be the last in-home robot from Amazon.
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