Amazon Creates a New Ground Drone Called “Astro” – Based on the the Cartoon “Jetsons” Pet Dog
When they first created The Jetsons in the 1960s, the creative minds of William Hanna and Joesph Barbera gave the Jetsons technology unlike anything available at the time, such as video phone calls, robotic maids, and drones. Today, it would be hard to imagine doing without video calls through apps like Skype and FaceTime. Household robotics like Rumba vacuums are more popular than ever. And the drone industry is one of the fastest growing commercial markets.
Astro, the Jetsons family dog, has even become the inspiration behind a new product by Amazon, a household roving drone companion. Amazon Astro combines the capabilities of Alexa with an autonomous AI based drone on wheels. As explained by Charlie Tritschler, Vice President of Products at Amazon, Astro is “designed to help customers with a range of tasks like home monitoring and keeping in touch with family. 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 .”
Astro is about the size of a Border Terrier and weighs a little over 20lbs. Like a Rumba, Astro comes with a charging station that it will go to automatically when its battery is low. Astro has several settings, one of which is “hang out” mode, which has the drone rest in areas it deems the most frequently visited by people. This can be easily turned off, sending the drone to rest in its charging base instead. Astro can be quickly and easily set up to personal preferences. One of the most important things to do is allow the drone to “learn” the layout of your home. The drone goes through each room of a house and creates a digital map so it knows navigational boundaries.
Once Astro knows its navigational boundaries, it can move about autonomously, with sensors that will instantly stop it if an unexpected obstacle, like a person, pet, or dropped toy, gets in the way. The drone has a large interactive tablet screen that can be used for video phone calls or watching your favorite Amazon Prime Video programs. There is a tray with removable cupholders on the back of the drone, so you can even tell Astro to bring a snack to another room. One of the best aspects of the drone is that if you also have Ring, Astro will link with it. It can monitor your home, alert you if there is someone at your door, an intruder inside, or just check up on things while you are away.
One downside of Astro is that since it is a roving drone, it is limited to one floor of your house. Filling that gap, Amazon also has an aerial drone called Ring Always Home Cam. Using the same navigational technology as Astro, this drone will map the layout of your entire home. It can safely and autonomously fly up and down flights of stairs to go to any room you request it to. Both drone devices are currently only available through private invitation, meaning you have to send an invitation request to Amazon for consideration. Astro will be available for beta testers at $999.99 with a 6 month trial of Ring Protect Pro. Its future retail price is set to be $1,449.99, while the aerial drone is available for $249.99.
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