Amazon’s Alexa is an intelligent assistant that can answer any question or give you a rundown on the weather, sports scores, and more. Vesta was designed with this in mind to integrate seamlessly into your home without sacrificing privacy.
Amazon is releasing a new Amazon Alexa-enabled home robot called the Vesta. The Vesta has a built-in camera and can be controlled with your voice.
Top players are continuously seeking for ways to boost the ante as the smart home market gathers traction. According to Bloomberg, Amazon, which has the largest market share in the industry, is speeding up development of a new Alexa household robot. New disclosures on the present work and development of this extremely covert project have just been reported by The Business Insider.
So, what’s going on with Vesta, the Alexa Home robot? What information do we have for certain and what is speculation? Is the robot in the above picture a true representation? Continue reading!
What is the Alexa Home Robot and how does it work?
The Alexa home robot is said to be a wheeled robot with the codename ‘Vesta’ on the inside (Roman goddess of the hearth). Vesta is like Alexa, but with a robot body and cameras. The personal AI helper would be able to travel about the home for extra usefulness as a result of this design.
The concept is apparently being developed by Amazon’s Sunnyvale, California-based research and development department, Lab126. The initiative is believed to be led by Gregg Zehr, the leader of Lab 126’s R&D section.
The Vesta is said to be in the final phases of manufacturing after four years of development, with roughly 800 Amazon employees being directly engaged with the project. The project has been beset by delays owing to changing strategy, so a mass production release is still a long way off.
The delays have apparently alarmed insiders, who are now doubting Amazon’s newest smart assistant’s commercial feasibility. Many worry it may wind up like Amazon’s ill-fated smartphone attempt, the Fire Phone, which cost the corporation $170 million in the end.
There are also rumors that the Vesta will be released as an invite-only restricted product, similar to how the Amazon Halo was released in August 2020. However, until Amazon announces a specific release date, all we know is that work is still proceeding.
Vesta, an Amazon Home Robot prototype, is described below.
The Amazon Vesta is believed to feature a number of design prototypes, one of which is characterized as a “Fire Tablet on wheels” by an insider. Multiple cameras, a microphone, and a digital screen are all included in the gadget, which is said to measure 10 to 13 inches broad. There’s no certainty that this will be the final design chosen by Amazon. The specifics of the product are kept under wraps.
Other Vesta prototypes are claimed to be roughly waist-high, with a multitude of computer-vision cameras to help navigation. It can be called up with your voice and might be used as a mobile Alexa. That would allow it to follow users throughout the home on demand, providing voice control functionality in regions where Echo devices aren’t available.
Despite the fact that Amazon has made no public statements about it. There is one indication that this is the case. jeffbezos said on Instagram:
Alexa Home Robot: What to Expect
It will respond when the user calls, thanks to its Alexa connectivity. It will ostensibly have all of the features of the Amazon Echo. Making calls, playing music, setting timers and reminders, and everything else a smart household has come to expect from Alexa are all included.
However, information on the Alexa household robot’s further skills is still scarce. However, a comparison to another comparable notion might provide insight into what to anticipate. Mayfield Robotics, which was founded in 2015, introduced a house robot in 2016 as part of Bosch’s internal startup program.
Kuri, their home robot, was created with a sense of the environment and the capacity to freely wander about the house. Kuri was supposed to become a member of the family, documenting precious moments on video and entertaining, among other things.
Kuri was able to respond to touch and voice, as well as transmit its mood via light effects. However, the business stopped producing a year ago to’re-evaluate the future.’
Limited functionality vs a high price tag ($700) was one of the reasons for the project’s failure. The Roomba robot vacuum is one of the few household robots that has achieved popular appeal. One of the reasons for this seems to be its laser-like concentration on a single purpose.
Early adopters such as Asus Zenbo and Jibo, as well as Aido and Kuri, have underperformed. All of these robots are capable of taking photos, scheduling chores, making video calls, and interacting with humans. However, the latter two were unexpectedly canceled, and Jibo’s servers were shut down. Zenbo is still being produced, however it is only accessible in a few areas.
High costs ($600 for Zenbo and $900 for Jibo) and insufficient functionality led to the demise once again. The majority of the functionality provided by these robots may also be found on smart speakers with displays. It’s also worth noting that they didn’t have any ties to an ecosystem of services and programs, so they can’t be compared to Amazon items.
According to Business Insider, Amazon may turn the Vesta into a home-use mobile meeting center owing to the device’s apparent impracticality. In principle, a home worker may use the Vesta to participate in a video conference while roaming about the house rather than being confined to a desk all day.
Widgets that assess temperature, humidity, and air quality are said to be included in the Vesta. A smoke detector and security features have been explored, as well as a compartment where the user may keep small objects.
Other features may still be added as the project progresses, however as previously stated, this method has resulted in launch delays and a poor project pace. All project specifics are just speculations until an official announcement is made.
Vesta’s capabilities are based on Amazon’s ecosystem.
As a result, investors expect that Vesta’s capabilities will go beyond those of a mobile Amazon Echo speaker. It’s quite improbable, given that the Alexa household robot would be linked to Amazon’s vast network of skills and cloud services.
Amazon Alexa now has over 80,000 skills and is the most popular AI assistant in the United States. She’s also connected to the company’s media streaming and e-commerce platforms. In addition, Amazon purchased Kiva Robotics in 2012 and began producing its robots. As a consequence, it has a wealth of expertise in the creation of automated warehouse robots. It introduced two additional warehouse robots, Xanthus and Pegasus, in June this year, to add to the rising number.
Unlike smaller competitors, it has the capacity to mass-produce Vesta household robots and can sell them at low profit margins. With the Echo, Kindle, and Fire TV devices, the business adopted this method to great success. As a result, the Prime ecosystem now boasts over 100 million users in the United States.
The Past of the Project and What the Future May Hold
Alexa has been a helpful female interface for the Amazon Echo smart speaker since 2014. Her main skills are to hear people’ voices from across the room and reply to orders and enquiries.
Despite the fact that Alexa has contributed a lot of capability to the smart home, Rohit Prasad, a key participant in Amazon’s Alexa business in 2018, admits that the assistant might be a lot smarter. “The only way to make smart assistants really smart is to give them eyes and let them explore the world,” he remarked at the EmTech Digital AI Conference.
Alexa clearly has eyes, as seen by the presence of cameras on select gadgets. Her capacity to explore the environment, however, may be restricted since she is unable to move. The comment seems to indicate that Alexa need a body in order to escape AI’s constraints.
Prasad, on the other hand, would not corroborate this. However, his statements, along with a Bloomberg article citing unnamed sources familiar with the project, lend credibility to the theory. Even if Amazon decides to never release the robot, all signs point to Vesta being available for purchase at some time. Based on the prices of other robots that have entered the market, we expect the pricing to be approximately $1,500. Amazon may want to make it more widely available, similar to how it did with the Echo.
With Amazon devoting over 800 personnel to full-scale development, it seems that the Vesta is becoming a higher priority for the firm. It’s unclear if it will attain mass popularity, like the Echo, and not be dismissed as a gimmicky niche device.
Is There a New Wave of Home Robots on the Horizon?
With the debut of the Echo, Amazon achieved incredible success, igniting a new trend in smart speaker technology. Vesta, the much-anticipated Alexa house robot, has yet to get a response. Is it possible that it will spark a fresh surge of interest in household robots?
Vesta, Amazon’s Home Robot, what will she look like?
As of yet, there are no official images of the Amazon Vesta. Fortunately, we don’t believe it will resemble the robot in our illustration. It’s more likely to resemble robots we’ve already seen, such as:
Watch This Video-
Amazon Alexa’s Home Robot is called the “Vesta”. It is a smart home device that can be controlled by Amazon Echo. The Vesta also has an app for Android and iOS devices so you can control it from anywhere. Reference: amazon home robot astro.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the robot Alexa cost?
A: The cost of an Amazon Echo is about $180.
Is Amazon making a home robot?
Is Alexa a virtual robot?
A: Alexa is a virtual assistant that can be found in many homes as of right now. It helps you with your tasks and chores, such as setting an alarm or playing music from Spotify.
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