Amazon just announced its new home robot called Astro, which is designed to serve as a helpful mobile assistant that can guide itself around the main floor of your home. Amazon promises Astro will support smart tasks such as patrolling your home while you’re away, carrying small objects from room to room (as long as a human places the object in its storage compartment), following a person around with its periscope camera while on a video call, playing music, and playing games with children. It’s essentially an Echo Show 10 on wheels, complete with Alexa support, mixed with some of the expectations of a robot vacuum sans vacuuming — room assignment, navigation, and self-charging via a dock.
The Astro is being made in small quantities to…