Amazon is designing the ultimate robot for the home: Here’s how it will be and what it will do
Amazon is planning an autonomous robot for the home capable of executing all the commands, and something else, of the current devices of the Echo family. Here’s how it will work.
It would be a great mistake to think that smart speakers are the arrival point of artificial intelligence technologies. The various hardware manufacturers and software developers know this, and of course Amazon also knows. According to a Bloomberg report, the Bezos company is planning to market an ultra-high-end Echo device that will be included in the line-up of products based on Alexa.
The first rumors about a robot with wheels from Amazon emerged in the first half of 2018, within a project known as Vesta (which was the goddess of the domestic hearth in Roman mythology). Vesta should be a sort of Alexa able to move independently at home, following the user wherever he can. As it already happens with the smart speakers of the Echo family, the robot will be able to interact with the smart home gadget ecosystem and will be able to respond to all requests from the user.
It is not possible at the moment to know many other details about Bezos ambitious project, but it seems that the company’s plans have not changed since last year. The marketing was scheduled for 2019, but it seems that the technology is not yet ready for the mass public.
Amazon has moved some engineers from other divisions on the project, and the first prototypes made by the company already have some very interesting features: they are generally lower than a human being (they reach the height of life) and can circulate in the house in a manner of all autonomous thanks to a camera system and computer vision algorithms. They can also be called via a voice command.
The Amazon robot would still not be a completely new product, as such devices exist and are already on sale. An example is Temi, a small autonomous robot with integrated display that can be controlled precisely with Alexa. It costs $1,999, and is more aimed at the corporate market (for example, example in shops, offices or premises to allow customers to find their way better) than for consumers.
Furthermore, within the next year Amazon could launch a larger Echo family device than the current one (even compared to Plus), with high-quality audio quality. The device will be accompanied by a Hi-Fi version of Amazon’s music streaming service.
There is the possibility that Amazon’s roadmap will be changed in the coming months: a robot for the home, probably very expensive, could be as interesting as it is difficult to sell to families. In several, we have already tried, but no one has yet had the ability to derive true commercial success from it.
