Super cute humanoid robots
Pepper, Nao, Romeo. These robots have nothing in common with the killer robots from sci-fi movies. Moreover, they are very useful helpers to humanity. The humanoid robots manufactured by Softbank Robotics are extremely neat. They mainly perform customer service and education tasks. We are going to present them in our blog post.
Nao robots
Nao is the first humanoid robot that Softbank Robotics developed and produced. By the way, it is the shortest, that’s why we also call Nao the little brother of Pepper. The robot is 58 cm tall, as you can see in the picture above, and walks on two legs. If it accidentally falls, it stands up alone. Actually, that’s not a challenge for the little robot. Nao robot can speak and can also understand spoken word.
After that, the question arises: Where is such a tiny robot used? Nao is used for customer service, marketing, reception and educational purposes.
Nao, for example, is employed in shopping malls by Klépierre. The main goal with the robot is to increase the customer experience and their turnover.
You can also find many examples for the use of Nao in the education sector. It helps students to learn programming. And at university level, a lot of researches are done with the robot.
Pepper robots
Pepper robot got this strange name because this word has no negative meaning in any languages. Pepper is a 1.2-metre-tall humanoid robot. Unlike Nao, it rolls on wheels. Its design is much more human-like, and similar to a small child, because of its height, appearance and behaviour. With its face recognition, it can automatically follow people.
Thanks to the development of our company, Pepper is also able to understand and synthesize Hungarian speech.
There are countless sensors in the body of the robot that sense when you touch the robot. For example, you can program how it shall react when you stroke its head or take its hand. By the way, be extra careful with the handshake: it’s extremely delicate. It wasn’t developed for high fives. Not to mention grabbing objects. Pepper can only gesticulate with its hands. It can wave with them and actively uses them during its performances.
The greatest advantage of the robot is communication. It is also used for customer service proposes at stores, hotels, airports, banks and offices. In the health care, you can also meet the robot at clinics and hospitals. Pepper was also very useful in the fight against the pandemic.
Romeo, the mysterious two-legged robot
It’s mysterious because Romeo is still under development. In addition, there is relatively little information about it on the internet. The development began in 2009, specifically for research purposes. In partnership with the Softbank, several laboratories and research organisations joined the project. With Romeo, they want to launch a social robot that can take care of elderly people living alone.
It has similar abilities as the other two robots, but it can use its hands not only for gesticulation. One goal of the research is, for example, that the robot should be able to bake pancakes based on a recipe downloaded from the internet.
Romeo walks on two legs and is a 1.4 m high humanoid robot. It’s human-like, but it’s still far from scary.
More humanoid robots
Of course, not only Softbank Robotics that deals with the construction and development of humanoid robots. According to the data and forecasts of Report Buyer, markets are significantly growing all over the world. By 2023, humanoid robots are expected to have a market of $ 3,963 million. This means a ca. 53% increase compared to data in 2017.
The knowledge and abilities of humanoid robots are constantly expanding. These are deployed in more and more places for educational purposes. The demand for them is growing significantly in retail, too. However, the researchers say that this process will be hold back by the relatively high cost in the survey period.
Sources: Facebook page of NAO robot; Softbank Robotics; generationrobots.com; robotics.org; Report Buyer;
Our company is the Hungarian reseller of Pepper robot. As national and international examples show, these robots can also be used successfully for business, healthcare and educational purposes.
