The Future is Now: Meet Amazon’s Astro Robot and Companion
Before Alexa and the iPhone was the Roomba cleaning our floors and carpets and the iPod holding our selection of music and videos. Time and technology are progressing, and now most of us can’t live without Alexa telling us what the weather forecast looks like today or our iPhone carrying our entire life in our pockets.
After trial and error of robots in homes since the beginning of technology, Elon Musk has decided to take on the impossible task of an in home robot that he named Astro. Musk is calling Astro a humanoid domestic servant, that offers help with manual and hazardous tasks and a pet-like companion to be invited into our homes as the future of robots.
Astro’s large screen with digital circles for eyes that blink and close when sleeping (charging), and its dog-like body immediately offers physical companionship to individuals that may live alone and do not want the responsibility of a pet, and the intelligence of a robot when asking it to do the manual or hazardous tasks. For a family, looking for a companion or someone to oversee the household, Astro may be their best bet.
Astro Feels Familiar
Amazon is introducing Astro as the tie between the Echo Show and the Ring Camera because it is virtually and physically showing up in your home as these two but in robot form. Astro is physically in your home, but it is made to avoid contact with it’s physical surroundings and it is capitalizing on its roving sentry capabilities. After years of fear of robots becoming threatening and dangerous inside of homes, Astro is far from it. Astro is considered to be endearing with its home smart technology, security, and pet-like characteristics.
Astro Gives Emotional Stability
For years, people have gained emotional connections to products like Alexa, especially during the 2020 pandemic when emotional instability was at an all time high. Amazon is definitely trying to build on that emotional connection with Alexa by inviting people to purchase Astro for this exact reason.
Amazon is always about simplicity and with Astro’s circular drawn eyes on its screen and R2-D2 like personalized greetings make people feel like their living in the future, but in reality this is the future. Robots are our future and Amazon might have just nailed it with Astro, and the beginning of robots in our homes.
Click on this video to see Astro in motion.