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What Astro, Amazon’s home robot will do

3 years ago babelfish

What Astro, Amazon's home robot will do

Amazon presented Astro, a robot designed to help in a series of household tasks, which responds to voice commands thanks to Alexa

Amazon is launching Astro, its first home robot.

The Seattle-based tech giant has unveiled a home assistant robot, called Astro, that can help with home security monitoring, powered by its Alexa smart home technology.

The company led by new CEO Andy Jassy said it can be remotely controlled when not at home, to control pets, people or home security.

For Amazon, it represents the union of many different parts of the company – robotics, artificial intelligence, home monitoring, cloud services – all in one device.

It currently costs $ 999.99. The robot will begin shipping to select customers later this year, Amazon said, but only in the United States. And after the initial limited run, its price will rise to $ 1,449.99.

But we've seen other nice humanoid robots, like Pepper, fail to make their mark, remembers the BBC .

In fact, this summer SoftBank Group suspended the production of its humanoid robot Pepper, the emblem of the group a few years ago.

WHAT THE AMAZON ROBOT CAN DO

The Astro robot has a 10-inch touchscreen that can show a "face" and goes around the house on wheels. It can also automatically patrol a home and notify owners if it detects anything unusual.

It can also recognize faces and deliver items to a specific person. It can play music and show you the time and answer questions like any Echo smart display.

The little robot is also equipped with an extendable “periscope” camera that opens from its head. Amazon showed a usage example to check if a gas hob was left on after leaving the house.

Referred to by the same company as more than “Alexa on wheels”, the robot has been programmed with a series of movements and expressions to give it personality.

AND WHAT NOT

But as ambitious as Astro is, “it's still a first cut in what a home assistant robot could be. It has no arms or appendages; cannot clean your floors; cannot climb stairs; he can't leave your house, ”emphasizes The Verge.

EYE TO PRIVACY

Developing Astro, Amazon has also been careful about privacy issues.

The company has in fact highlighted that the robot can be set up with "out of bounds" zones, so it cannot enter certain areas or could be set to "do not disturb". It also has buttons to turn off cameras and microphones, although it loses the ability to move when they are turned off.

THE COMMENT OF THE ANALYSTS

"Astro is a bold move on Amazon's part, but a logical step given its expertise in robots and a desire to integrate more into consumers' daily lives," said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight at the BBC .

Unlike some rivals, Amazon "is willing to bring highly experimental products to market" and see how customers react, the analyst added.

“I believe the Astro robot will run out in minutes when it is available on the US market,” concluded Wood.

But building robots is difficult. And if the home robotics market takes off, people will have to be convinced to spend a lot of money. This first foray gives Amazon a chance to hone their skills. And probably, there isn't a company already firmly rooted in our homes like Amazon, notes the BBC .

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/cosa-fara-astro-il-robot-per-la-casa-di-amazon/ on Sat, 02 Oct 2021 06:23:55 +0000.