What Amazon’s Astro Taught Me About Giving Robots a Soul

In 2018, Amazon brought me in as the lead UX Sound Designer for Astro, its first consumer home robot . Astro used cameras and other sensors to map and navigate your home and workplace , and could proactively patrol, check up on loved ones, and transport small items using its built-in cargo bin. While there was a well-defined feature set and form factor, initially there was no character direction. In fact, even before Astro had a name, there were two main questions—was it simply Alexa on wheels,…