Pepper the robot

Pepper the robot

INTRODUCTION

Launched in June 2014 in Paris, Pepper is a surprising humanoid robot created by SoftBank Robotics.

Pepper is the first emotional robot, designed to be an assistant.

Pepper is a social humanoid robot capable of understanding and reacting to main human emotions. Pepper is well equipped with features and a high level interface for communicating with those around him.

Pepper analyzes expressions and voice tones using the latest advances in voice recognition. Indeed he is already used by over 2,000 companies (such as Nestle, Renault, Carrefour and Uniqlo) as an assistant to welcome, inform and guide visitors in an innovative way. 

Pepper can welcome customers, give information about products, send messages or collect data. He is used at reception of companies but also in banks, hospitals, schools and universities

Pepper is also an open platform, meaning that new features can be added over time. Developers want to make Pepper improving continually.

SPECIFICATIONS

• 120 cm high and 28 kg

• 12 hours of energy when continuously active. Pepper knows when his battery is low and will navigate to his charging station

• 1 3D camera to detect humans and their movements from up to 3m away

• 20 motors,Infrared sensors, bumpers, 2D and 3D cameras,3 omnidirectional wheels for agile mobility and sonars which allows him to have autonomous navigation. 

PEPPER’S MAIN FEATURE

Pepper is the first humanoid robot, able to interact in the real world and have a real presence among humans. His multiple sensors enable him to understand his environment and adapt accordingly.

Pepper has the ability to interpret basic expressions of emotion on the human face: a smile, look of surprise, anger and sadness. He also knows how to understand the intonation of the voice, the context of words, as well as nonverbal language such as the tilt of the head. Coupling these informations allows Pepper to determine whether the person in front of him is in a happy or sad mood. Furthemore, Pepper has a colossal database of questions and answers that enable him to speak about 20 languages.

PEPPER A ROBOT WTH ETHICAL ISSUES

Of course Pepper will help many people and be useful in many fields

But, Pepper like every new robots is posing new issues, with always wanting making robot closer to the human, we expose ourselves to huge dangers :

Will they ,one day, be as peformant as us ?

Will they have emotions and conscience ?

What can robots do and what are they rights ?

Will they be able to interact between them in a coded language ?

Today, all those questions are fabulous subjects for science fictions films but in the future they will be real issues for human being.