Embodied AI Glossary中文SoftBank Robotics Pepper
Pepper 机器人AdvancedSoftBank's 2014 wheeled companion-and-reception robot, with a chest tablet built for conversation and emotion recognition.
Pepper is a social service robot co-developed by SoftBank and its subsidiary Aldebaran, released in June 2014 and put on sale in Japan in 2015. It stands about 1.2 m tall, with a humanlike upper body (head, arms, hands) on a three-wheeled omnidirectional base rather than legs — it cannot walk — and a 10.1-inch tablet on its chest, with about 20 degrees of freedom. Its selling points were voice conversation and reading people's facial expressions and emotions, aimed mainly at retail greeting, bank and hotel reception, and education. Pepper became a cautionary example of how hard it is for a “robot that can chat” to sustain real commercial demand: SoftBank reportedly paused production around 2021, and in 2025 its related assets were acquired together with Aldebaran.
ExampleFrom roughly 2015 to 2018, many phone shops and banks in Japan had a Pepper stationed at the entrance to greet customers and explain services.
- Also called
- Pepper
- Related
- Service Robot · Companion Robot · SoftBank Robotics NAO · Wheeled Humanoid Robot · Guided Tours & Reception · SoftBank Group
- Sources
- The Robot Report: Aldebaran, maker of Pepper and Nao robots, put in receivership
Humanoid Index: Pepper by SoftBank Robotics - As of
- 2025-07