Pepper

A friendly, gesturing, white humanoid robot with a mobile base, simple smiling face, and a tablet on its chest with a red heart symbol. — Come be my friend. Photo: Antoine Doyen

Pepper is a friendly humanoid designed to be a companion in the home and help customers at retail stores. It talks, gesticulates, and seems determined to make everyone smile.

Creator

SoftBank Robotics

(originally created by Aldebaran Robotics, acquired by SoftBank in 2015)

Year

2014

Country

Japan 🇯🇵

Categories

Features

A rotating view of a friendly white humanoid robot with a mobile base, simple smiling face, and a tablet on its chest that says pepper. — See a 360° view of Pepper. Photos: SoftBank Robotics

Did you know?

At Pepper's launch event, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son asked the robot to describe some of its functions. "Masa, I don't want to show off," Pepper replied, "this might take over 100 hours."

A friendly white robot with a heart displayed on its tablet holds hands with two larger adult humans. — I want to hold your hand. Photo: Antoine Doyen

Pepper is seen waving at customers as they leave a store. — Happy to help. Photo: Softbank Robotics

A family robot. Video: SoftBank Robotics

History

Pepper was unveiled by Masayoshi Son, founder and chairman of telecom giant SoftBank at a Tokyo event in 2014. French robotics company Aldebaran, maker of the Nao humanoid, built the robot for SoftBank. Designed to be a companion in the home, Pepper was the world's first full-scale humanoid to be offered to consumers. In 2015, SoftBank started selling it in Japan for 198,000 yen (less than US $2,000), plus a monthly subscription fee. Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn, known for building iPhones for Apple, produced the robots. Despite initial excitement, Pepper didn't find widespread adoption in homes. Over the years, it was mostly used as a research tool in robotics labs and as a greeter in shopping malls and airports. According to one estimate, only 27,000 units were manufactured, and in 2021 SoftBank stopped production citing weak demand. In 2022, Germany's United Robotics Group acquired SoftBank Robotics Europe, which reverted to its former name of Aldebaran.

Nine pepper robots are seen in a large room posed in different ways. — Peppers undergoing testing. Photo: Erico Guizzo

Shelves with multiple Pepper torsos and heads are seen through a window. — A window full of Peppers. Photo: Erico Guizzo

Specs

Overview: Omnidirectional wheeled base. Voice and object recognition. Software development kit (SDK) with support for multiple programming languages. Tablet to display information. Twenty languages supported, including Japanese, English, French, and Spanish.
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2014
Website: softbankrobotics.com/emea/en/pepper
Width: 48.5 cm
Height: 120 cm
Length: 42.5 cm
Weight: 28 kg
Speed: 3 km/h
Sensors: Head with two HD 5-megapixel cameras (mouth and forehead), 3D sensor (behind eyes), four microphones, and three touch sensors. Torso with gyroscope. Hands with two touch sensors. Leg/mobile base with two sonars, six lasers, three bumper sensors, and a gyroscope.
Actuators: 20 DC motors
Degrees of Freedom (DoF): 19 (Head: 2 DoF; Shoulder: 2 DoF x 2; Elbow: 2 DoF x 2; Wrist: 1 DoF x 2; Hand: 1 DoF x 2; Hip: 2 DoF; Knee: 1 DoF; Mobile base: 2 DoF)
Compute: Intel Atom E3845 computer. 10.1-inch tablet on the robot's chest for displaying information. Two speakers. Bluetooth, Ethernet, Wi-Fi.
Software: NAOqi operating system. Choregraphe software development kit (SDK) and Pepper SDK for Android Studio. Support for Python, C++, Java, and JavaScript. ROS interface. Over 20 software engines, including awareness, motion, and dialogue. Emotion engine that attempts to infer how a user is feeling based on facial expressions, tone of voice, and speech, allowing the robot to respond accordingly.
Power: 30-Ah lithium-ion battery, 12 hours of operation
Cost: €16,900 (base price)