Amazon Astro underwhelms; Vicarious Surgical CEO Adam Sachs

Welcome to Episode 56 of The Robot Report Podcast, which brings conversations with robotics innovators straight to you. Join us each week for discussions with leading roboticists, innovative robotics companies, and other key members of the robotics community.

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In this week’s episode, Steve and Mike dive into Amazon Astro. Amazon unveiled its much-anticipated consumer robot earlier this week, and it’s underwhelmed the robotics community. We share our thoughts about Astro and hear from callers who share their opinions about Amazon’s first consumer robot.

We also interviewed Adam Sachs, CEO and founder of Vicarious Surgical. The Massachusetts-based company is developing a next-generation surgical system that in 2019 won FDA breakthrough device designation for its virtual reality-based robot-assisted surgical device. He discussed the challenges and keys to developing the system, the opportunities ahead, and debuting last week on the NYSE via SPAC.

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Links mentioned in the show

Amazon Astro home robot

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Written by

Mike Oitzman

Mike Oitzman is Senior Editor of WTWH's Robotics Group, cohost of The Robot Report Podcast, and founder of the Mobile Robot Guide. Oitzman is a robotics industry veteran with 25-plus years of experience at various high-tech companies in the roles of marketing, sales and product management. He can be reached at moitzman@wtwhmedia.com.