Pepper (robot)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Pepper is a semi-
humanoid robot A humanoid robot is a robot resembling the human body in shape. The design may be for functional purposes, such as interacting with human tools and environments, for experimental purposes, such as the study of bipedal locomotion, or for other pur ...
manufactured by
SoftBank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...
Robotics (formerly
Aldebaran Robotics Nao (pronounced ''now'') is an autonomous, programmable humanoid robot formerly developed by Aldebaran Robotics, a French robotics company headquartered in Paris, which was acquired by SoftBank Group in 2015 and rebranded as SoftBank Robotics. ...
), designed with the ability to read emotions. It was introduced in a conference on 5 June 2014, and was showcased in SoftBank Mobile phone stores in Japan beginning the next day. Pepper's ability to recognize emotion is based on detection and analysis of facial expressions and voice tones. Production of Pepper was paused in June 2021, due to weak demand.


History

Pepper was introduced in Tokyo on June 5, 2014, by Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank. Pepper was scheduled to be available in December 2015 at SoftBank Mobile Pepper went on sale in June 2015 with the first batch of 1,000 units selling out in just 60 seconds. Pepper was launched in the UK in 2016. By May 2018, 12,000 Pepper robots had been sold in Europe. In June 2021, it was reported SoftBank would pause production of Pepper, citing weak demand. At the time, an estimated 27,000 units had been manufactured.


Use


Commercial

Pepper is currently being used as a receptionist at several offices in the UK and is able to identify visitors with the use of facial recognition, send alerts for meeting organisers and arrange for drinks to be made. Pepper is able to chat autonomously to prospective clients. The first functioning Pepper receptionist in the UK was supplied b
a SoftBank distributor
and was installed in London at Brainlabs. The robot has also been used at banks and medical facilities in Japan, using applications created by Seikatsu Kakumei. and it is also used in all branches of Hamazushi restaurants in Japan. Pepper is being used in North American airports such as Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal, Canada. The robot is used to greet travelers, offer menus and recommendations. In 2018, Pepper robot was introduced first time in the UAE. In December 2019, a dozen of Pepper robots were installed at the "Pepper Parlor Café" in Tokyo, Japan.


Sports

On 9 July 2020, a team of Pepper robots performed as cheerleaders at a baseball game between the
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. They compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League. The team was formerly known as the Nankai Hawks and was based in Osaka. ...
and the Rakuten Eagles, supported by a team of
Boston Dynamics Boston Dynamics is an American engineering and robotics design company founded in 1992 as a Research spin-off, spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, Boston Dynamics has been owned by th ...
Spot Spot or SPOT may refer to: Places * Spot, North Carolina, a community in the United States * The Spot, New South Wales, a locality in Sydney, Australia * South Pole Traverse, sometimes called the South Pole Overland Traverse People * Spot (produ ...
quadrupedal robots.


Consumer

In 2017, Pepper was reported to have been used in thousands of homes in Japan.


Academic

Pepper is available as a research and educational robot for schools, colleges and universities to teach programming and conduct research into human-robot interactions. In 2017, an international team began research into using Pepper as versatile robot to help look after older people in care homes or sheltered accommodation. The project
CARESSES ''Caresses'' is a 1998 film by Ventura Pons, originally titled ''Carícies'' in Catalan. Plot Barcelona is the scenario for eleven entwined stories sharing the same characters. The movie deals with a variety of intimate relationships, portraying ...
aimed at developing the world's first culturally-competent robot, received funding worth more than two million Euros, with donors including the European Union and the Japanese government. The project was expected to run for three years. Institutions involved in the research include
University of Genoa The University of Genoa, known also with the acronym UniGe ( it, Università di Genova), is one of the largest universities in Italy. It is located in the city of Genoa and regional Metropolitan City of Genoa, on the Italian Riviera in the Liguri ...
(Project Coordinator),
Örebro University Örebro University ( sv, Örebro universitet) is a state university in Örebro, Sweden. The university has its roots in the Örebro campus of Uppsala University, which became an independent state university college in 1977, Örebro University Col ...
,
Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated MDX) is a public research university in Hendon, northwest London, England. The name of the university is taken from its location within the historic county boundaries ...
, the
University of Bedfordshire The University of Bedfordshire is a public research university with campuses in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England. The University has roots from 1882, however, it gained university status in 1993 as the University of Luton. The Universi ...
,
SoftBank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...
Robotics,
Advinia HealthCare Advinia Healthcare Ltd is one of the biggest private Health care, care providers in the United Kingdom. Advinia operates 38 care homes and 3,250 beds across England and Scotland. The group specialises in complex dementia and Alzheimer's disease, A ...
,
Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology is a postgraduate university in Japan, established in 1990. JAIST was established in the centre of Ishikawa Science Park (ISP). It is to the south of Kanazawa City. JAIST has programs of advanced research and development in science and technol ...
(Japanese coordinator),
Nagoya University , abbreviated to or NU, is a Japanese national research university located in Chikusa-ku, Nagoya. It was the seventh Imperial University in Japan, one of the first five Designated National University and selected as a Top Type university of T ...
,
Chubu University is located in Kasugai, Aichi, Japan. Chubu University was established as the Chubu Institute of Technology in 1964 with the motto "Acta, non Verba" (Actions, not Words), but its institutional history begins with the Nagoya Daichi High School e ...
. On Tuesday 16 October 2018, a Pepper robot mentioned the CARESSES project while giving evidence to the Education Committee of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Parliament. Long-term research with Pepper could show that residents of care home are willing to interact with humanoid robots and benefit from cognitive and physical activation that is led by the robot Pepper. Another long-term study in a care home could show that people working in the care sector are willing to use robots in their daily work with the residents. But it also revealed that even though that the robots are ready to be used, they do need human assistants, they cannot replace the human work force but they can assist them and give them new possibilities.


Design


Purpose

Pepper is not a functional robot for domestic use. Instead, Pepper is intended "to make people enjoy life", enhance people's lives, facilitate relationships, have fun with people and connect people with the outside world. Pepper's creators hope that independent developers will create new content and uses for Pepper.


Specifications

The robot's head has four microphones, two HD cameras (in the mouth and forehead), and a 3-D
depth sensor Range imaging is the name for a collection of techniques that are used to produce a 2D image showing the distance to points in a scene from a specific point, normally associated with some type of sensor device. The resulting range image has pix ...
(behind the eyes). There is a
gyroscope A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rota ...
in the torso and touch sensors in the head and hands. The mobile base has two
sonars Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...
, six
lasers A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...
, three bumper sensors, and a gyroscope. It is able to run the existing content in the app store designed for SoftBank's Nao robot.


Incidents

In September 2015, a visitor frustrated with his customer experience in
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
lashed out against Pepper, damaging the unit. In 2018, a supermarket in
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
removed the service robot within a week as it was unpopular with customers. This was said to be due to high levels of background noise making the robot unable to hear questions properly, and customers being unwilling to interact with a robot when human help was available.


See also

* Manav (robot) *
Musio Musio is a social robot designed by AKA Intelligence, powered by MUSE, an AI engine for communication developed by AKA. Using deep learning algorithms, Musio converses with people, recognizes objects and understands people's facial expressions. A ...
* Nao


References


External links

* !-- https://www.softbankrobotics.com/emea/en/robots/pepper -->https://www.softbankrobotics.com/us/pepper Pepper - SoftBank Robotics
Robot - SoftBank Group
*
Pepper special website
*
Pepper developer website
{{Authority control Robots of France SoftBank Group Humanoid robots Robots of Japan 2014 introductions 2014 establishments in France 2014 establishments in Japan