[Page 2] Meet Pepper: The humanoid personal robot that sold out in one minute

Editor's note: This article is continued frompage one.

The robot’s head is equipped with four microphones, two HD RGBcameras (in the mouth and forehead) and a 3D depth sensor behind the eyes. It also has a gyroscope in the torso and touch sensors in the head and heads. Pepper’s mobile base has two sonars, six lasers, three bumper sensors, and a gyro.

In an article on The Robot Report, Frank Tobe, owner and publisher of the brand, referenced a conversation he had with Joe Engelberger, who is considered to be the founding force behind industrial robotics, and for whom theRIA has an award named after. Years ago, Tobe said, Engelberger told him that he could build a robot to assist seniors for $750,000, but instead of investors or venture capitalist funds, he wanted money from those already within the industry, including Johnson & Johnson, Siemens, GE, and Medtronic.

This move, suggested Tobe, mimics Engelberger’s sentiment.Foxconn is already ramping up to do the manufacturing for the Pepper robot. Demand is only expected to grow, with Nestle recently purchased 1,000 Pepper robots for their Japanese stores, and SoftBank’s retails stores receiving 1,000 as well. Once Pepper extends beyond Japan, the next likely target is China, where Alibaba is the biggest name in market, suggests Tobe.

The effort by SoftBank and its partners into consumer robotics is large, and perhaps a telling sign that social robots will be a big thing in the coming years.

Following the one-minute sellout in July, Pepper will be back on sale on August 29, 2015, with customers being able to place orders online on theSoftBank website. Pepper costs $1,600 plus a monthly internet connection of $120 and a monthly maintenance contract of $80.

View more information onPepper.

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