Pepper the Robot Is Coming To America (and Android Developers)

Softbank's "emotional robot" is getting its first U.S. outpost in San Francisco.

/ Artificial Intelligence/ Coming To The U S/ Pepper/ Softbank

5.23.16, 11:59 AM EDT by Colin Aboy

Last week's Google I/O event certainly showcased where future web and mobile technologies are headed. At the event, Japan-based Softbank Robotics Corp. announced it is finally taking its popular "emotional robot," Pepper, onto U.S. soil...complete with extra goodies for developers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgnPN8r8RX4

The company is opening its first outpost in San Francisco to address local development in the States. With this move comes more exciting news: the robot, which currently runs on Linux, will be able to run on Android, together with a software development kit (SDK).

The kit is perfect for those seeking to freely and creatively work on the potential of Pepper, since its arrival might open up a variety of ways to put it to good use.

The developers who have the SDK, however, won't get their own Pepper (unless they buy one), but will instead have a virtual version of the robot to work with.

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