Welcome to Episode 53 of The Robot Report Podcast, where each week Robot Report editor Steve Crowe and Mobile Robot Guide editor Mike Oitzman review the latest robotics, automation and intelligent systems news and announcements, and interview leading roboticists, leaders of innovative robotics companies, and other key members of the robotics community.

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In Episode 53 of The Robot Report Podcast, Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman dive into Amazon Astro. Amazon recently 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.

Crowe and Oitzman also interview 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.