(T) I just received an e-mail that the b8ta store at 516 Bryant Street in Palo Alto will have for one week Pepper – the emotional robot from Aldebaran in France, now Softbank Robotics. Pepper will be launched later this year in the U.S., for various applications in the retail industry.

A little more about Pepper…

Pepper was initially designed for the Japanese market and wants to be first and foremost like humans in its ability to feel and convey emotions.

Standing 4 feet tall and weighing about 60 pounds, with a 10” touch tablet on its chest, Pepper is a little bit larger than Nao but using an omnidirectional drive base rather than walking “legs” to move around.

Pepper can feel human emotions (joy, sadness, anger, surprise, and doubt) by analyzing, as humans do, facial expressions, body languages, and voice tones.

Pepper also can express his emotions conveyed by his body language, his funny gestures, and his voice.

As it is the case for Nao, Pepper will grow empowered by new apps by providing development tools to worldwide developers. But Pepper will be connected to the Internet which is not the case for Nao.

Pepper’s Brain and Body specs:

• More than 40 innovative patents
• A 3D camera to perceive his surroundings and human activity up to 10 feet (3 m)
• He weighs around 61 lbs (28 kg) and is almost 4 feet (120 cm) of pure style;
• 17 anti-pinch articulations that give him graceful and fluid movements
• 3 omnidirectional wheels allow him to move around freely
• 14 hours of battery life

References
A Silicon Valley Insider, Dancing with the Stars
A Silicon Valley Insider, The Rise of Social Robots – Meet Pepper the Emotional Robot

Note: The picture above is from Pepper.

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