Astra

Before Apollo existed, Apptronik of Austin tested a torso-only robot called Astra in logistics. Astra, a two-armed upper body without legs, was the company's first product; it was described publicly in January 2023 and worked in logistics pilots that same year. The design allowed mounting on an autonomous mobile robot so the torso could travel through a warehouse.

Electric series-elastic actuators with torque control provided compliant force for two-handed manipulation. Apptronik now states that the actuation and manipulation lessons from Astra fed directly into Apollo, and the company website lists Astra as a legacy platform, which is why the catalogue marks it as discontinued.

The maker never published weight, height, degrees of freedom, lifting capacity, sensors or a price, and no commercial offer exists, so pricing is formally on request. The intermediate step between Astra and Apollo was the internal QDH, which added legs to the Astra upper body. The company's current direction is set by Apollo 2 from June 2026.

Astra remains of interest as an example of the torso-on-mobile-base approach that several makers still pursue.