Robot Karel Pepper
NLP Centrum, FI MU
nlp.fi.muni.cz/projects/pepper
Technical equipment of humanoid robot Pepper
• 2 x CPU - 1 in robot’s head, 1 tablet
• OS Linux - progr. language Python,
OS Android with the tablet
• height 120 cm, width 48 cm, weight 28 kg
• movement on 3 wheels, max speed 3 km/h
• microphones (4 on top of head), loudspeakers
(2 ears)
• sensors: touch (head, hands, tablet, bumpers), 3D (eyes), obstacle
detection (infra, lasers, sonars), 2D cameras (forehead, mouth)
• 14 motors with Magnetic Rotary Encoders (read position)
• battery 30 Ah, 10 hours of work
• natural languages: ASR and TTS by Nuance, 20 languages
• by Softbank Robotics, JP (formerly
Aldebaran, FR)
• a "family" of three robots:
• NAO (2008, 58cm, 5.5kg)
• PEPPER (2014, 120cm, 28kg)
• ROMEO (2012, 140cm, 36kg)
• several thousand Peppers in the world
• Czech Republic - about 10 pieces
(CTU 4x, T-Mobile, OREA hotels 2x,
Prague airport, FI MU)
Pepper in the world and in the Czech Republic
Programming the robot
• guidelines of Programming for a living robot
• API versions - NAOqi (Python, C++, Java,
Javascript), QiSDK (Android on tablet)
• access via (download for registered only):
• GUI tools - monitor and choregraphe
• direct programming via SDK above (Python, ...)
• ssh and command line
• interaction:
• voice - separate words or complex dialogues
• played sound and music
• tablet - HTML5, touch, web, images and video
• robot animations
• touching
• moving around
Ability of "intelligence" and "empathy"
• pleasant and welcoming look and height of a child
• partly female look (internal code name Juliette)
• autonomous life - background movements, basic
awareness
• emotion detection (ALMood):
• gaze analysis (eye opening degree, look angle, ...)
• face characteristics (age, gender, smile, anger, ...)
• voice analysis (4 emotions, level, excitement)
• API functions for keeping track of people around, detection of
waving or sitting people (cannot track children well)
• easy integration with powerful dialog API
• video analysis of robot’s surroundings
• basic movement, tracking and navigation capabilities
Applications of robots
in general
•industrial use, non-humanoid robots
•healthcare - various types of
assistance and assistants and
auxiliary work
•administration - auxiliary administrative work
•marketing - querying, data mining, attracting
•research in the field of human-machine communication in the
indicated areas
Our plans and goals with Karel Pepper
social communication research
• mastering natural language
communication (primarily
in Czech)
• research in question answering,
inference and deduction
• robot programming in relation to
tasks mentioned before
• student works in project topics
in relation to AI