Rumor: Amazon is working on the development of home robot
Amazon is working on the development of a home robot, reports on in-house sources to Bloomberg news agency. The company is currently recruiting people for the project and want to start with internal tests at the end of this year.
According to sources the project bears the name Vesta. The project would have been started years ago within Amazons Lab126 department, where the Echo speakers, the Fire TV set-top boxes and the Fire Phone were also developed. Amazon would now employ more people to work on the development of the robot. According to Bloomberg, this also appears from the available jobs at the Amazon part. A large part of this would focus on robotics and sensors.
There is currently a prototype of the robot that has ‘advanced cameras and computer vision software’. The functions of the prototype and of the final product are unclear, although it would be able to autonomously move through the home. The sources speculate that the device could be a sort of ‘mobile Alexa speaker’. The project stands out from the robots that Amazon is developing for its own department stores, which is happening in Massachusetts and Germany.
Amazon would like to test the robots in the homes of employees at the end of this year. This should then happen in consumer homes next year. Bloomberg notes, however, that the plans can still change and that Amazon’s hardware projects are sometimes stopped in the middle of their development.
The American company is not the only one that is interested in robots. For example, at the beginning of this year, LG showed three models in its CLOi line, which are intended for shops or hotels and last year Hub Robots for smarthome operation.
There is currently a prototype of the robot that has ‘advanced cameras and computer vision software’. The functions of the prototype and of the final product are unclear, although it would be able to autonomously move through the home. The sources speculate that the device could be a sort of ‘mobile Alexa speaker’. The project stands out from the robots that Amazon is developing for its own department stores, which is happening in Massachusetts and Germany.
Amazon would like to test the robots in the homes of employees at the end of this year. This should then happen in consumer homes next year. Bloomberg notes, however, that the plans can still change and that Amazon’s hardware projects are sometimes stopped in the middle of their development.
The American company is not the only one that is interested in robots. For example, at the beginning of this year, LG showed three models in its CLOi line, which are intended for shops or hotels and last year Hub Robots for smarthome operation.