Amazon Astro

2021: Home Robot Launch

On September 28, 2021, Amazon announced its first home robot, it is called Astro and will sell at $999.

Astro is a "Day 1 Edition" product - this means that it will not be sold to everyone. Instead, Amazon will ask people to register, and then invite them to order a robot. This allows the company to avoid creating too many gadgets that will not be sold and public failure. The company said Astro will go on sale at the end of 2021, but did not name a specific launch date.

A device the size of a small dog, such as a Pomeranian spitz, Astro moves around the house on three wheels, including two large ones that prevent it from getting stuck and one smaller one for rotation. He has a camera that goes up on a 42-inch bracket to keep an eye on your house when Astro patrols it while you're not home. The device can follow the user on the heels, play music or show TV shows on its 10-inch touchscreen. The device can recognize faces if you want to enable this feature, and the user can also load two sodas into the rear storage compartment and tell Astro to take them to someone in the living room.

Astro cameras can be used for home security or for video chat by combining Amazon's Ring cameras with smart Echo Show screens. Cameras are also used to create a map of your home when you first install Astro. The user can also talk to Astro in the same way as to Echo or Alexa. The device can play movies or TV shows like on an Amazon or Fire TV tablet. Astro charges like a robot vacuum cleaner, that is, it itself stands on the dock.

Manage Astro remotely using the phone app if the user wants to look after a loved one who lives alone, for example, an aging family member. Amazon will also sell an insert from third-party manufacturer Omron, which is placed in the rear storage compartment and can hold a cuff for measuring blood pressure. This will allow people to manage Astro remotely and remind lonely people to check the pressure, which seems useful and opens Astro to audiences not only for geeks who want to have a home robot. After promotion, the online retailer Amazon plans to raise the price to $1.5 thousand.^[1]

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