security
Autonomous home patrol with alerts and Ring integration
Owner verifiedVerified May 2026
- Control mode
- Autonomous
- Human intervention
- None required
Research record R-010Limited delivery
Astro
By Amazon · United States · announced September 2021
Amazon's invite-only home rover: the closest thing the US has to a mainstream home robot, and a case study in staying niche.
Broader research scope
This is a research record, not a curated recommendation.
The main field guide selects 14 companion robots for deeper review. This entry belongs to a separate 53-record index that also covers industrial, research, and developer systems.
Research summary
What the record says.
Astro is a wheeled home robot with a periscope camera, a screen for a face and Alexa for a brain. Announced in September 2021 as a $999 Day 1 Edition, it has been sold by invitation ever since, now at $1,599. It patrols the house on schedules, investigates sounds, carries video calls from room to room and doubles as a roving security camera through Ring integration.
Amazon killed Astro for Business in July 2024 after about eight months, saying it would refocus on the home version. Since then the product has lived in limbo: owner communities reported the listing briefly vanishing in January 2026, but as of May 2026 it remains purchasable by invite at $1,599. Astro is the only home robot in this database with years of ordinary-household use behind it, which makes its owner-verified capabilities a useful baseline for every humanoid promise.
Delivery evidence
Announcement is not arrival.
Owner verified
Sold to consumers since late 2021; active owner community
Reality check
Astro does what it claims: patrol, check-ins, video calls, Alexa. Owners' consistent complaints are about what it does not do: no arms, no stairs, and after nearly five years Amazon has shipped no major capability leap. Its real value is as evidence of what a camera on wheels is worth in a home, which is roughly $1,599 to a niche of enthusiasts.
Capability ledger
What has actually been shown?
5 material claims are separated by evidence setting and human involvement. The strongest recorded signal is Owner verified; it does not automatically transfer to every row.
remote presence
Mobile video calls; owner can drive it remotely
Owner verifiedVerified May 2026
- Control mode
- Mixed / assisted
- Human intervention
- Remote driving is by the owner, by design
conversation
Alexa voice assistant on wheels
Owner verifiedVerified May 2026
- Control mode
- Autonomous
- Human intervention
- None
entertainment
Follows you with music, expressive personality
Owner verifiedVerified May 2026
- Control mode
- Autonomous
- Human intervention
- None
elder care
Alexa Together remote-care integration for aging relatives
Independently testedVerified May 2026
- Control mode
- Autonomous
- Human intervention
- Family members receive alerts
Hardware record.
- Height
- 60 cm
- Weight
- 9.3 kg
- Locomotion
- Two-wheel drive base with caster
- Payload
- About 2 kg in rear cargo bin
- Runtime
- About 2 hours active; self-docks to charge
- Charging
- Self-docking charge station
- Top speed
- About 1 m/s
- Degrees of freedom
- Periscope camera mast, screen tilt, no arms
- Hands
- None
- Face / expression
- Screen with animated eyes; expressive sounds
- Sensors
- Periscope camera (1080p), navigation cameras, ultrasonic sensors, microphones
Software record.
- AI platform
- Alexa plus on-device 'Intelligent Motion' navigation
- Voice
- Full Alexa voice assistant
- Languages
- English
- Visual recognition
- Visual ID face recognition (optional) for finding specific people
- Memory
- Knows home layout, recognizes enrolled household members
- Processing
- Navigation largely on-device; Alexa queries in the cloud
- Autonomous abilities
- Fully autonomous patrol, navigation and self-charging
- Teleoperation
- Owner can remotely drive Astro via app when away
- Software updates
- Regular OTA updates
- Developer access
- None
Who can see, hear, or take control?
- Recording storage
- Video processed locally for navigation; clips and calls go through Amazon cloud under Alexa/Ring policies
- Remote operation possible
- Yes
- Teleoperation disclosure
- Remote viewing/driving is owner-initiated; periscope shows on-screen indicators
- Camera / microphone controls
- Physical mic/camera off button; out-of-bounds zones and do-not-disturb
- Data deletion
- Alexa privacy dashboard deletion controls
- Account required
- Amazon account required
- Emergency stop
- Stop via button, app or voice
- Children and pets
- Obstacle avoidance around kids and pets; Amazon publishes safety guidance
- Security updates
- Amazon device update policy; no published end-of-support date
Lifecycle record
Status history.
- Preorder
Announced as $999 invite-only Day 1 Edition
- Limited delivery
First units reach customers
- Limited delivery
Astro for Business discontinued; consumer version continues
- Limited delivery
Still invite-only at $1,599; future uncertain
Source register
3 linked sources.
These sources support the research record as a whole. Unlike the curated dossiers, this imported record does not yet map every claim to a stable source ID.