Astro will be available exclusively by invitation .
The regular price will be US$1,449.99 .
Essentially, the Astro robot is an Echo Show smart display on wheels. It can move around your home a bit like a tiny Segway and the screen – which looks remarkably like a Lenovo Yoga Tab – can rotate around the main body.
There are also mics, speakers and a built-in periscope camera you can make use of to either interact with Astro in person or control remotely when you’re not at home.
In terms of movement, Astro is sort of like a very advanced robot vacuum cleaner and uses Intelligent Motion to autonomously navigate around the home. A set of safety sensors (depth and night-vision LEDs) can detect things like stairs and obstacles while simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) helps Astro to understand where it is.
Once Astro has explored and mapped out your home, you can set areas that are off-limits. Astro is only designed for indoor use and there’s no mention of it being able to go up or down stairs.
Just like you can use security cameras to check on your property, you can do the same with Astro with the dedicated Astro app but navigate around rather than just getting a live feed from a fixed position. A built-in periscope camera extends out of the top on an telescopic pole – up to 42in from the floor.
Astro can also patrol around the home while you’re out to check on many rooms. It will send you an alert for things like an unrecognised person. With the new Ring Protect Pro service, it can save video clips of detected events to your Ring cloud storage.
Like the newly announced Echo Show 15 , Astro supports Visual ID so can recognise registered users. This means it can deliver a reminder to a specific person or even something physical if someone put it in the cargo bay and tells Astro who to take it to.
So, it can fetch a beer, it just can’t get it out of the fridge on its own. The detachable cup holder can be replaced with optional extras like a Ziploc container, the Omron blood pressure monitor or Furbo Dog Camera.
In terms of core specs, the display is 10.1in with an HD resolution (1280×800) with touch input. The bezel camera next to the display is 5Mp and the periscope camera is 1080p with a 132 degree field of view.
There’s also Wi-Fi 5 (11ac) and a 2.1 speaker system.
Author: Chris Martin, Managing Editor, Tech Advisor
Tech Advisor Managing Editor Chris got his break as a reporter at infamous site The Inquirer and has been with us for more than 12 years. With a BA degree in Music Technology, audio is his specialism, but over the years he has reviewed all kinds of gadgets, from smartwatches to mesh Wi-Fi to coffee machines.
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