By Sukanya Ganesh in AI — Jun 16, 2025

Pepper

Pepper is a humanoid robot that reads emotions and interacts naturally in settings like retail, healthcare, and education.

About Pepper

Learn - a couple of courses to further your knowledge in AI

AI Jobs - a listing of fresh jobs related to AI

In Other News - a few interesting developments we're tracking

Pepper is a semi-humanoid social robot developed by Aldebaran Robotics (now part of United Robotics Group), initially introduced by SoftBank in Japan in June 2014.Designed to interact naturally with humans, Pepper can recognize faces, interpret emotions, and engage in conversations, making it suitable for various customer-facing roles.

Key Features

Emotion Recognition - Pepper uses facial recognition and voice tone analysis to detect human emotions, allowing it to adapt its interactions accordingly.
Speech and Hearing - Equipped with four directional microphones, Pepper can identify the source of sounds and engage in natural conversations.
Touchscreen Interface - A 10.1-inch touchscreen on its chest displays information and facilitates user interaction.
Mobility - Pepper moves at speeds up to 3 km/h and can navigate environments using sensors like lasers and sonars.
Sensors and Cameras - It features two HD cameras, a 3D depth sensor, gyroscopes, and touch sensors to perceive its surroundings and interact safely.

Applications

Retail and Hospitality - Pepper serves as a greeter and information assistant in stores, banks, and airports, enhancing customer experience.
Education - In classrooms, Pepper assists in teaching programming and social-emotional skills, engaging students through interactive lessons.
Healthcare - Pepper has been utilized in care homes to provide companionship and monitor the well-being of elderly residents.

Technical Specifications

Height: 1.2 meters
Weight: 28 kg
Operating System: NAOqi OS
Battery Life: Approximately 12 hours
Connectivity: Wi-Fi (2.4GHz/5GHz) and Ethernet
Degrees of Freedom: 20 motors enabling expressive gestures

Research and Development

Pepper continues to be a platform for research in human-robot interaction. Enhancements like integrating NVIDIA Jetson GPUs and advanced cameras have been proposed to improve its perception and interaction capabilities.

Market Presence

Despite initial enthusiasm, Pepper faced challenges in widespread adoption. Production was paused in June 2021 due to limited demand, with approximately 27,000 units manufactured by that time.