Pepper by SoftBank Robotics vs AIREC by Waseda University

Pepper is a social robot made for customer service, reception, education, elder care companionship and events, where its job is to greet, inform and engage people. AIREC is a research platform whose use cases include elderly care such as repositioning, dressing and rehabilitation, as well as medical exams like ultrasound, biometrics and cooking assistance. Pepper works through conversation, gestures and its tablet, while AIREC works through physical contact and precise manipulation. The two robots therefore solve different problems and are rarely direct substitutes.

Pepper weighs 28 kg, measures 121 x 48 x 42.5 cm and is built from plastic and soft composites, with a mobile base that moves at up to 3 km/h. AIREC weighs 150 kg and uses an aluminum frame with soft skin composites, which suits a robot that has to support or move a person safely. The much heavier frame gives AIREC the strength needed for care tasks but makes it a far larger machine to install and operate. Pepper's lighter body makes it much easier to move and install in shops, lobbies and classrooms.

Pepper has 20 degrees of freedom and can carry about 1 kg per arm with a maximum lift of 2 kg, enough for gestures and light handling. AIREC is equipped with tactile sensors, force sensors and a body built for contact with people. Pepper uses touch sensors and bumpers mainly for interaction and safety, whereas AIREC uses force sensing to control how it handles a person's body. For physical assistance, AIREC is the far more capable manipulator.

Pepper carries two 5 MP HD RGB cameras, a 3D depth sensor, six laser sensors, two sonars, an IMU, four microphones and touch and bumper sensors, and navigates indoors with laser, sonar and visual SLAM. AIREC uses RGB, fisheye and depth cameras with tactile sensors, force sensors, an IMU and a gyroscope, and relies on visual SLAM for navigation. Pepper's mix of lasers and sonar is tuned to moving safely among people in public spaces, while AIREC's vision and touch sensors are tuned to close physical work. Both are designed for indoor environments.

Pepper runs NAOqi OS and can be programmed in Python, C++, Java and JavaScript, with Choregraphe and Android Studio for building behaviors and a ROS interface for researchers. Its learning features focus on emotion recognition and task programming. AIREC runs on ROS2 with proprietary deep neural networks and Python APIs, and learns through reinforcement learning, motion learning from human demonstration and predictive deep learning. Its computing is handled by an NVIDIA RTX GPU together with a CPU and NPU, while Pepper uses an Intel Atom E3845 processor, so AIREC has far more on-board capacity for AI.

Pepper uses a 30 Ah, 795 Wh lithium-ion pack that provides about 12 hours of operation and takes around 4 hours to charge, averaging roughly 50 W with peaks near 100 W. AIREC uses a lithium-ion polymer battery that charges fully in about 3 hours. Neither robot has a swappable battery, so both are recharged on a dock or at a charging point. Pepper's long working day suits a full shift of customer interaction, while AIREC's sessions are shaped by the length of each care or research task.

Pepper is the better choice for customer service, reception and events. It is built to talk, read emotions and interact through a touch tablet, voice and gestures, and it can run around 12 hours between charges. Its lighter 28 kg body, omnidirectional base and mature developer tools make it far easier to deploy in shops, lobbies and classrooms. AIREC is not designed for front-of-house work, so for public engagement Pepper is the clear recommendation.

AIREC is the better choice for elderly care and medical research. Its tactile and force sensors, learning-from-demonstration capability and focus on repositioning, dressing, rehabilitation and ultrasound exams match the physical needs of caregiving, and its on-board GPU supports advanced AI experiments. Pepper can keep older adults company and lead activities, but with 20 degrees of freedom and a 1 kg per-arm carrying limit it cannot physically assist a person. Research labs and care-technology developers should look at AIREC, while Pepper fits companionship and engagement roles.