Amazon brings its ‘Astro’ home robot to the market

Amazon finally unveiled its first home robot this week, and the company named it “Astro.” The unit is part of the “Day 1 Edition,” which means it will be initially sold to a limited number of people.

As per CNBC, interested customers must sign up to get an invitation to order from Amazon. This process was implemented so that the company would not build too many units that may only end up not being sold.

In this way, Amazon will only produce the exact number of orders, and there will be no waste of time and money as well. The Astro home robot will go on sale before this year ends, but the e-commerce and tech firm did not mention a specific date.

“Astro is a new and different kind of robot, one that’s designed to help customers with a range of tasks like home monitoring and keeping in touch with family,” Amazon vice president of products, Charlie Tritschler, wrote in a blog post to introduce the home robot.

He added, “It brings together new advancements in artificial intelligence, computer vision, sensor technology, and voice and edge computing in a package that’s designed to be helpful and convenient.”

Moreover, Astro is not too big and not too small and was described as the “size of a small dog.” It goes around the house using two big wheels along with a smaller one for rotating. It has a camera that can serve as home security or for a video chat even while you are walking around.

The robot has a small storage compartment at the back, and it can store at least two soda cans. Astro can be commanded to take the soda to someone in the kitchen or living room.

Another great feature is that it can follow a person while playing music or a TV program on its 10-inch touchscreen. What’s more, Astro can also function like Amazon’s Alexa, where people can talk to it and get updates about the weather or other things.

Finally, Astro has a tag price of $1,449.99, but under the Day 1 Editions program, it will be offered at an introductory price of just $999.99. This price already includes a six-month trial of the Ring Protect Pro subscription.