Amazon has formed a Personal Robotics Group and is hiring for a "new-to-world robot product," according to the company's job postings, as it makes a fresh push into home robots five years after launching Astro. The group is built around Fauna Robotics, the New York-based maker of the Sprout humanoid that Amazon acquired in March.
Amazon assembled the team over several months. Earlier this year it redeployed much of the Astro team into the effort and brought in a roboticist from MIT, according to LinkedIn profiles. Amazon has not disclosed the new robot's design, price or release date.
The job listings sketch what Amazon is after. A since-removed engineering posting described a robot that navigates changing home environments and operates autonomously around family members. A Principal UX Designer role at Fauna calls for defining what living with one of its robots feels like, including how the robot earns household trust, signals its actions and conveys personality.
Key facts
- 01Amazon has formed a Personal Robotics Group and is hiring for a "new-to-world robot product," per job postings.
- 02The group is built around Fauna Robotics, the New York maker of the Sprout humanoid, which Amazon acquired in March 2026.
- 03Sprout stands 1.07 meters (about 3.5 feet) and weighs 22.7 kilograms; it launched January 27 as a Creator Edition.
- 04Amazon redeployed much of its Astro team into the effort; the new robot's design, price and release date are undisclosed.
- 05Astro launched in 2021 at $1,450 and stayed invite-only, reaching a few thousand customers.
Other listings point to a product meant for real customers at scale. A Senior Software Development Engineer role covers cloud services that connect a growing robot fleet, plus high-frequency telemetry pipelines that balance privacy, security and reliability against speed and cost. A Field Support Engineer would act as a primary technical contact for customers, diagnosing hardware and software problems remotely and handing off on-site repairs.
Fauna's Sprout launched January 27 as a Creator Edition for researchers, educators and commercial developers. The humanoid stands 1.07 meters, about 3.5 feet, and weighs 22.7 kilograms, with a soft exterior, minimized pinch points, motors that yield to external forces and time-of-flight sensors. Its modular AI architecture accepts developers' own models, and it ships with mapping, localization and trained motion controls for walking, kneeling, crawling and sitting.
Fauna had around 50 employees when the deal was announced, including founders Rob Cochran and Josh Merel, who joined Amazon. Financial terms were not disclosed. Fauna still sells the Sprout Creator Edition as Fauna Robotics, an Amazon company, and the acquisition came less than a week after Amazon bought RIVR, a maker of quadruped delivery robots.
“committed to tackling the challenges that can unlock the personal robotics category”— Brad Glasser, Amazon spokesperson
Astro debuted in 2021 at $1,450 as a wheeled home robot that could navigate a house, recognize faces and act as a mobile security monitor. It stayed invite-only and reached a few thousand customers, and a business version introduced in 2023 was discontinued within a year. Amazon says it continues to support Astro owners.
The consumer push sits on top of a large industrial base. Amazon already runs more than one million robots in its fulfillment centers, and CEO Andy Jassy identified AI and robotics as major inflections for the company in the shareholder letter he published in April.
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