What it is and what it is not
When Astro first arrived at my door, I had mixed feelings of excitement and skepticism. Its design was futuristic and elegant and just the right size, but the screen was at knee height and it couldn’t climb stairs, clean, or pick things up. After a week of living with it, my perspective has developed. Astro isn’t Rosie from The Jetsons or Sonny from I, Robot, but Astro combines the most promising features from other social robots, like Aibo, Kuri, and Jibo.
On paper, Astro is an Alexa and camera on wheels, yet it can be more than that. Like most smart home products, some degree of creativity, curiosity and initiative is required for an immersive experience. To get me started, I was given a list of commands to try out Astro’s personality. While it was fun asking it to beatbox or dance, I soon started asking it to go off the list like crying, smiling, singing, whistling, etc.—I was surprised each time it performed successfully. Sure, this is pure novelty that will eventually wear off, but I found Astro to be more than a finite personality, which is why I think it is unique. Depth is one of those intangible attributes that keeps us fascinated by our pets, and Astro is a significant step in that direction. For the security-conscious, the robot can patrol the home or be dispatched to certain rooms if a strange noise is heard at 3am. For seniors that need a walker to move around the home, Astro can carry small objects. For seniors living alone, the robot can locate them at specific times and give a reminder on-screen to take vitals or medication (which could even be carried on board). While this is no new function, smart speakers can’t find, deliver, or carry for folks with mobility issues. Astro has a form of agency beyond a glorified alarm clock. The Gita outdoor carrying robot offers good examples in how seniors could be positively impacted by Astro in the home.
I was surprised how different Astro was to Alexa. If I asked about the weather, it would respond with Alexa’s voice, with a forecast on screen. Interacting with Astro, asking it to follow, go to a certain room or set a timer, such interactions only prompted facial expressions and subtle sounds. While it is clear it is an Alexa-based device, the attempt to separate its personalities is admirable. This low-key, ambient response is subtly different.
While privacy in the Smart Home is a subject in itself, conflicting information regarding the features and capabilities of Astro has been misleading. The commentary below tries to separate the capabilities of the robot from the ethics behind the technology.
Fluid movement, never bumping furniture or people
What most impressed me was its autonomous movement through my home. During the week I trialed Astro, it never bumped into furniture or ran into anyone. In fact, during video calls, I asked Astro to come closer several times. It responded with an onscreen refusal as it kept a safe distance. Moreover, when a task was over, I simply told it to go to its base and off it went, like a robot vacuum returning to charge.
Consequently, my kids never stepped on Astro nor did any adults kick it because it was loitering too close. In my experience, Astro was rarely in the way—its situational awareness is very good indeed, far beyond my robot vacuum cleaner. The only time it felt a nuisance was when it would ‘hang out’ in the living room and stare at me.
Navigation was a breeze
Astro’s handling of stairs was as expected. When Astro explored the home during setup or patrolling, it never tried to commit suicide by throwing itself down the stairs. I tested how well it sensed obstacles and its level of self-preservation: by asking Astro to follow me after I had a good head start out of my front door. Astro moved at top speed toward the door, which has a medium threshold. Astro would have toppled forward over the step had it not identified it. Instead, it slammed on its brakes, stopping short of the hazard. This was probably a good thing it is not really designed for outdoors.
Surveillance and privacy risk
One thing I immediately noticed is that Astro doesn’t have a physical shutter for its primary on-screen camera. While the periscope withdraws, there is no real way to ensure the robot is not watching or listening: only a button to turn off the camera and microphones. I would have preferred a physical shutter for the camera.
Because I already own a robot vacuum, I am not overly concerned about Astro’s use of SLAM to navigate the house. To use live view, I had to pair my phone to Astro with a QR code. Anytime I tried to use live view, camera footage would be blurry for about ten seconds while Astro emitted a loud beeping noise to alert anyone nearby that live view was commencing. Amazon tell me that facial recognition (Visual ID) is processed locally in the robot.
For navigation, SLAM uses sensors marked on the front of the body as navigation sensors. They are stereo-depth sensors not a streaming camera. Computer vision is processed in the stereo sensor, with raw data retained inside. The streaming cameras (in the center of the screen bezel and the mast) are not used for navigation / SLAM. Amazon promises that Astro does not use a video camera to navigate; I would argue it is less invasive (and inherently more secure) than the latest robot vacuums which do use conventional video cameras for maneuvering.
As reported by Ry Crist from CNET (and others), Astro takes images of each room when on patrol. While it offers enhanced security, it raises legitimate privacy concerns. Although such 360-degree images are typically taken only when unoccupied, Amazon has potential access to information about people’s private lives. Amazon will be well-advised to ensure that such images are kept locally encrypted. Like the broader smart home market, a significant segment of consumers want a smart home that learns their behavior without collecting data. Home robots may need to follow a similar path and perform tasks without storing or sharing information. As memory of patterns and habits is a key aspect of intelligence, it will be interesting to see whether such learning is possible without storage.
Facial recognition and sentry mode
One of the most enjoyable features of Astro is its ability to find people. I enrolled three people in the system, two adults and a child. It couldn’t identify the child, I think because I enrolled him with a child’s profile. This may be a system safeguard. Adult profiles worked fine: it was fun asking it to find someone specific. For example, the timer notification worked well. When the time was up, Astro scooted around the house trying to find me with an on-screen message.
I armed Astro to patrol the house to test its ability to locate and follow people it could not identify. During this trial, it followed and videoed the individual successfully. The only time it followed someone that wasn’t enrolled. When not tasked, Astro finds a place to wait unobtrusively.
The only time I experienced Astro’s face recognition struggling was when it couldn’t find me. If you asked it to find someone who was hiding, it would take a bit of time to locate them. Other than the child profile issue, facial recognition performed well.
Is it just a camera on wheels?
As we near the end of 2021, surveillance has become a real issue on numerous fronts. From security cameras in public spaces to video doorbells aimed at sidewalks and indoor cameras, we are recorded and tracked more than ever. Some of the latest cars have up to eight cameras that can record in addition to providing autonomous assistance. Such recording offers real benefit in many applications, but balance is necessary.
It’s no surprise that Astro has several cameras. Initially, I was disappointed with the camera angle from the knee-high screen, until I found that during video calls the periscope deploys near to eye level. For me, this is one of the most useful Astro features. While it’s handy that the periscope raises when patrolling the house, the periscope - in my opinion - transforms the value of video calls.
My kids love to FaceTime with grandparents, but they get bored after a few minutes and start to fight over who holds the phone or tablet. With Astro, they remained engaged for nearly an hour’s session. Because Astro can move, they were able to show grandparents around using the wide-angle periscope camera. All in all, it gave a far more natural experience than a fixed camera.
Having Astro around at birthday parties during the pandemic would have been useful and fun. Compared to a fixed smartphone on a tripod, I can only imagine how much easier it would have been to have Astro roam around, plus a dramatically improved experience for the folks on the other side of the call.
But it can’t pick things up?
It’s true, Astro cannot clean, place a beer in my hand or climb stairs. I kept hoping that an arm would pop out to open the fridge or hydraulic legs like the giant spider in Wild Wild West, but alas, I will have to wait. But the lack of such features is no surprise. Few, if any, commercially available consumer robots have useful arms. Tasks such as folding laundry, loading a dishwasher or ironing remain fiendishly difficult. Such robots remain painfully slow, still in the laboratory and unaffordable.
Who will want this robot?
From my week-long Astro trial, home size is a defining factor. Consumers may be disappointed with a $999-$1,499 robot in a home less than 600 sq ft/60 sqm. In such a space, you can hear a timer from anywhere, while a single camera in a corner would suffice. Although care and assistance applications would remain valuable even in small spaces, a robot is of limited appeal to most small households. However, in my view, Astro’s utility increases dramatically in larger, single-story homes and with more people in the household. In the US, a single-floor 3,000 square foot home could benefit from a small robot that can travel room-to-room.
So, for consumers who want naturalistic video calls, have mobility issues, want an innovative way to stay in touch with a relative aging-in-place or have worries about home security, this robot is a great first step in the long road for home robotics. Astro is cheap by comparison with care costs and would pay for itself very rapidly if it enabled longer independent living for the vulnerable. Technology reviewers tend to be young and have younger, healthier parents—as such this value proposition is perhaps outside their experience.
For consumers concerned about privacy, in-home cameras, listening devices, inhabit a small multi-story home or who simply don’t have the time to learn the nuances, then Astro will be less interesting. Amazon’s smart speakers have not been the victims of a widespread hacking scheme, beyond lab demonstrations, which should bring some solace to consumers. Notwithstanding, having a camera roam your house is a risk, but the odds of someone hacking Astro to watch you make dinner is small - and the outcome probably won’t be very lucrative for hackers or Amazon. Conspiracy theorists can conclude that Amazon’s sole purpose is to gather information and sell you things. The fundamental question is how companies gather and use personal data. Apple and other widely trusted brands collect an enormous amount of data as well; but they choose to keep it to themselves. My smart TV can track my viewing habits, my car stores data on my driving. To think that Internet Giants cannot see the fingerprint of our behavior and choices is naïve. Credit card companies have been able to do so for decades. The question consumers must answer for themselves - and specifically regarding Astro - is whether the benefits outvalue the perceived risk. A surprising example is that notoriously secretive German consumers have been the strongest adopters of Alexa devices in Europe.
In summary…
Regardless of the pros and cons, Astro is rather more than a wheeled camera and smart speaker. It’s hard to evaluate potential from a press release or spec sheet. You must live with it for a while. During my time with Astro, the developers updated some of its personality traits, making a real difference. I am confident that the robot will improve through OTA updates. It appears to be the start of an evolutionary platform, not a fixed-function device. I would expect a second-generation Astro would be able to customize its face (eyes), gain teachable AI, and improve its personality functions. But object manipulation remains a long way off for the home robotics. Success ultimately will depend on understanding people; it will need to adapt itself to differing lifestyles and household structures to gain mass appeal.
What does Astro do well
- Identifies people through local facial recognition
- Moves through the home better than any robot vacuum
- Provides another layer of security for users concerned about home invasion or burglary
- Multifunctional—its periscope and trunk give the robot more utility than other home robots
- Its personality is subtle and engaging but is only one feature of the robot, not the sole purpose
- Astro offers a new and unique way to video chat with friends and family
What needs work
- The personality needs to evolve over time
- Images taken by the robot need to be encrypted or at least it should be an option
- Users should also be able to have an option to keep maps stored locally, although this would make remote ‘live view’ unusable, and all robot vacuums already use radar/lidar to map homes
- Privacy shutter on front camera
- Practicality for smaller homes
- Although Astro appears to have more functionality than similar robots, after a few weeks, consumers may still ask, "Well, what now?”. Like other smart home products, home robots will require, at least for now, some degree of creativity. Just turning it on and having it become part of the family with its own personality is not in the immediate future.
My comments are not an endorsement or defense of Amazon or Astro. I have no commercial or personal interest in Amazon.
For more on my experience with Astro, you can read my blog linked in the “Further reading” section below.
Appendix
Further reading
“Amazon enters home robot market” (September 2021)
Author
Blake Kozak, Senior Principal Analyst, Smart Home