The Robot Invasion Has Begun

The rise of the robot is finally upon us, but instead of laser armed droids of death, it’s being lead by the charmingly kawai Pepper the Robot.

- Shawn Chung

Traveling through Tokyo on a chilly January morning, I was struck by the number of Softbank ads for this little robot. Pepper the Robot is promoted by Softbank as the first robot in the world able to perceive emotions from voice range, facial expressions and body movements and formulate its response accordingly. Pepper has taken Japan by storm, with over 11,000 units of this cute 1.2 metre tall humanoid robot going on sale in June 2015 - mostly to businesses who pay ¥55,000 (S$727) a month for a three year lease but occasionally Softbank holds online sales to consumers where 1,000 robots priced at ¥198,000 (S$2,617) are snapped up in one minute!