conversation
Greets, answers questions, reads basic emotion
Commercially deployedVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Autonomous
- Human intervention
- Venue scripting; live operator optional
Research record R-045Discontinued
Pepper
By Aldebaran (now Maxtronics) · France / Japan · announced June 2014
The robot that taught the world what a social robot is, out of production since 2021 but still working lobbies and classrooms.
Broader research scope
This is a research record, not a curated recommendation.
The main field guide selects 14 companion robots for deeper review. This entry belongs to a separate 53-record index that also covers industrial, research, and developer systems.
Research summary
What the record says.
Pepper was the first mass-produced humanoid designed to read emotions and hold conversations with the public. Launched by SoftBank and Aldebaran in June 2014, the 1.2 meter wheeled robot with a chest tablet became a global icon, greeting customers in banks, phone stores, hospitals and airports; lifetime sales are cited between 17,000 and 27,000 units depending on source.
Production was paused in 2021 amid weak demand, and Pepper's corporate story since has been turbulent: SoftBank sold its robotics European operations to United Robotics Group in 2022 (the company reverting to the Aldebaran name), Aldebaran entered French insolvency proceedings in early 2025, and its assets, including Pepper and NAO, were bought at auction by China's Maxvision in July 2025, which operates the brand as Maxtronics.
Thousands of Peppers remain in service, supported by distributors like RobotLAB, which pledged zero-disruption support in 2025. No new Peppers are being made, and a revival under Maxvision is unconfirmed.
Delivery evidence
Announcement is not arrival.
Commercially deployed
17,000-27,000 units sold across 70 countries before production pause
Capability ledger
What has actually been shown?
4 material claims are separated by evidence setting and human involvement. The strongest recorded signal is Commercially deployed; it does not automatically transfer to every row.
education
Classroom and research platform
Commercially deployedVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Autonomous
- Human intervention
- Teacher-programmed
elder care
Care-home engagement programs
Independently testedVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Autonomous
- Human intervention
- Facilitated sessions; studies show mixed results
entertainment
Dances, games and photo moments
Commercially deployedVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Autonomous
- Human intervention
- None
Hardware record.
- Height
- 120 cm
- Weight
- 28 kg
- Locomotion
- Three omnidirectional wheels
- Payload
- Gesture-only arms; no useful payload
- Runtime
- Up to 12 hours (retail configuration)
- Charging
- Manual plug-in
- Top speed
- About 3 km/h
- Degrees of freedom
- 20
- Hands
- Five-finger hands for gesture, not grasping strength
- Face / expression
- Fixed friendly face; expression through eyes/LEDs, voice and a 10.1 inch chest tablet
- Sensors
- 2 RGB cameras, depth sensor, 4 microphones, sonar, laser, bump and gyro sensors
Software record.
- AI platform
- NAOqi OS; emotion-reading engine; later third-party LLM integrations
- Voice
- Multilingual scripted and conversational speech
- Languages
- 15+ languages supported over its life
- Visual recognition
- Face detection, basic emotion estimation
- Memory
- Customer-deployment dependent
- Processing
- Onboard with cloud services
- Autonomous abilities
- Autonomous greeting, dialogue and navigation within venues
- Teleoperation
- Operator and scripting tools for venues
- Software updates
- Support continues via distributors; platform development effectively frozen
- Developer access
- Yes: SDK, Choregraphe, large academic ecosystem
Who can see, hear, or take control?
- Recording storage
- Venue-controlled; cloud services for speech in most deployments
- Remote operation possible
- Yes
- Teleoperation disclosure
- Venue discretion
- Camera / microphone controls
- Operator controlled
- Data deletion
- Venue responsibility
- Account required
- B2B accounts
- Emergency stop
- Power button; low-force design
- Children and pets
- Designed for public interaction with children; low-force compliant arms
- Security updates
- Distributor-supported; long-term commitment uncertain after ownership changes
Open questions
Disputed or unverified.
- Lifetime unit counts vary: about 17,000 (2025 reporting) versus 27,000 (2021 reporting)
Lifecycle record
Status history.
- Public demonstration
Unveiled by SoftBank and Aldebaran
- Commercially available
Consumer launch in Japan; first 1,000 units sell out in a minute
- Discontinued
Production paused amid weak demand
- Discontinued
IP acquired by Maxvision after Aldebaran liquidation; support continues via distributors
Source register
3 linked sources.
These sources support the research record as a whole. Unlike the curated dossiers, this imported record does not yet map every claim to a stable source ID.