Rumors reemerged this week that Amazon will soon launch a (beta) home robot, codenamed Vesta, in the US.

Such rumors have swirled for five years or more. But, this time, the gossip looks more real. A buyable product now appears right around the corner. Hundreds of staff working on it.

Vesta is said to be an Amazon Echo on wheels. Price will likely be hundreds, not thousands, of dollars. You might command Vesta by voice to bring your car keys, reorder groceries, tell you the room temperature, or alert the family when indoor air pollution is bad. Vesta may be programmable. Or it may not. Vesta could look semi-humanoid. Some say it might be a budget Softbank Pepper.

However it is designed, Vesta will be Amazon's biggest push yet into mobile robots for consumers. This is a segment we predict will grow at +30% a year for the next half-decade.

If Amazon can nail a "killer app" for Vesta, there is big money in small robots.