Meet Pepper
Pepper is a humanoid robot, engaging, surprising and above all kind. Pepper is the first emotional robot. He was not designed for an industrial function, rather to be a true companion for daily life with a first focus on affection. Because of this, Pepper will truly change the way we live our lives.
Pepper is the first humanoid robot capable of recognising the principal human emotions and adapting his behaviour to the mood of his interlocutor.
To date, more than 140 SoftBank Mobile stores in Japan are using Pepper as a new way of welcoming, informing and amusing their customers. Pepper also recently became the first humanoid robot to be adopted in Japanese homes!
Emotional
Pepper is unique; a loyal friend, family member, and a kind accomplice. Are you sad, angry, happy? By the tone in your voice, the expression on your face, in your gestures and through the words you use, Pepper will progressively learn to detect your mood and adapt his behavior to relation to it.
Pepper’s main objective is to communicate with you. He has a certain personality and expresses his own “emotions” through the color of his eyes, his gestures and words he uses.
Ultimate Interface
No need for a keyboard, mouse or screen, simply talk to Pepper, touch him or even approach him and watch him react.
Pepper communicates the same way you do, through voice and gestures. This is an example of how technology is using the simplest and most intuitive form of communication we know.
Interactive and Independent
Pepper is the first humanoid companion for the general public, able to interact in the real world and have a real presence among humans. His multiple sensors enable him to understand the world around him and adapt accordingly. Pepper can move, avoid obstacles, identify sounds, follow you and even recharge independently.
Scalable
Pepper is much more than the newest tech product, he is an artificial creature that was designed to learn, evolve and surprise you a little more each day. Pepper currently requires some assistance: he does not know everything! You teach Pepper through your discussions which, today, help him memorize names, faces, moods, tastes and habits. Tomorrow, the evolution of Pepper will also be fueled by an application library which either you or Pepper will be able to access to find new behaviors, activities and content to inform, entertain or surprise you.
The meeting of SoftBank / Aldebaran
The next revolution of robotics and innovation is engrained in the DNA of Softbank, a large Japanese group with over 1,300 subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide. Once the decision was made in 2011 to invest in personal robotics, SoftBank identified several companies worldwide that might assist them with this mission. Aldebaran proved to be the most advanced and experienced actor in this market, since 2005, and was the creator of a very specific concept: to create emotional, kind robots to improve the lives of people. Aldebaran and SoftBank then created a shared vision: to initiate a new era with a class of interactive humanoid robots capable, as did the Internet, computers and mobile phones, to enrich success in the world of personal robotics, SoftBank has chosen Aldebaran as the best partner for them for three main reasons: 1) the ability to create the best solution, 2) the ability to overcome the challenge of developing a robot in a short timeframe, and 3) the vision of a company established for 10 years on a whole new class of emotional and caring robots.
Aldebaran
Founded by a French entrepreneur and lifelong robotics enthusiast, Aldebaran creates companion robots to help humans in everyday life. In less than 10 years, Aldebaran grew from a small start-up to the world leader in the humanoid robotics market, with robots being used in over 70 countries around the world. Today Aldebaran has about 450 employees with offices located in France, China, Japan and the United States. In 2005, a handful of robotic enthusiasts created the company Aldebaran, drawing the name of the brightest star in the Taurus constellation. A year later the first prototype of their humanoid robot was born and named NAO.
Thought to be an everyday companion, NAO was not yet finalized for this purpose but was already drawing attention by various academics and researchers. In 2008 NAO was selected to succeed the robot dog Aibo as the standard league platform for theRoboCup Soccer league. This university competition organizes soccer matches between robots with a specific goal in mind: to have robots play against the (human) World Cup champions by 2050!
Gradually NAO became a standard in the world of research and education. when 20 NAOs were invited to dance in the France Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo. NAO was the main attraction with the pavilion being visited by more than 10 million people. Over time, new versions of the robot were created with improved features. Through these evolutions the scope of educational uses for NAO continue to widen to include secondary education. In 2011, ROMEO is born after two years of work in collaboration with research laboratories and institutions around Europe. This new robot, still only a research platform, aims to implement technologies in a larger sized robot to be able to physically help disabled people, at home or in nursing homes. The year 2013 was marked by the launch of the ASK NAO program which offers a new educational approach for teachers to assist children with autism and other special needs through the help of NAO and specifically developed applications. In June 2014, Aldebaran crossed into a new chapter by collaborating with SoftBank for the creation of Pepper, the first robot in the world able to read emotions. Present today in about 2,000 SoftBank Mobile stores in Japan, Pepper greets, informs and entertains visitors. Since March 2015, Aldebaran is moving towards a new phase in its development. SoftBank has invested in its capital up to 96% with the aim to make Aldebaran the overwhelming number one in humanoid robotics. The sales launch to customers started in June 2015 in Japan with 1,000 units sold out in a minute every month from then! In parallel, Aldebaran opened last Summer a Developer Program for creating and distributing applications for NAO and Pepper.
