Your next family member might be a robot!

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

robot do your household chores, that is. Soon, we will be welcoming an era where robots will become an integral part of our families.

Picture this: A robotic chef is helping you with all your culinary adventures. Or a robotic pup that doesn’t shed or need to be taken out for walks. Or a security robot that checks all rooms and sends alerts. The rapid advancement in artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics have made these tasks achievable.
Companies are working on home bots that will soon be companions rather than mere machines.

Amazon Astro

Available only by invitation, Astro is a household robot for home monitoring that works with Alexa. It can check on specific rooms, people or things, as well as send alerts if it detects an unrecognised person or certain sounds when you are away. It can also play music, podcasts and shows, bring snacks and help you make calls or set reminders through Alexa. It moves around objects with ease and keeps a safe distance from people, pets and stairs using advanced learning algorithms and sensor fusion.

ElliQ

ElliQ, a voice-activated robotic companion, is part of an effort by New York state to tackle loneliness among older residents. Created by Israeli startup Intuition Robotics, the device looks like a small table lamp with an eyeless head that lights up and swivels. ElliQ proactively initiates conversations with its users or suggests potential activities such as physical exercises, trivia games or informational discussions on nutrition, to name a few. She also does things like remind individuals to take medications and do health checks while also tracking health metrics such as sleep, mood and pain.

Neo Beta

The NEO Beta isn’t like the old stiff robot. The humanoid,