SoftBank Robotics

SoftBank Robotics Group Corp. is the holding company for SoftBank Group’s robotics businesses. It was established in January 2012, is headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, and invests in and grows robotics subsidiaries while running research and development on robot products.¹ Reuters traces the business’s origins to SoftBank’s 2012 acquisition of the French robotics firm Aldebaran.² The company now describes itself as a “robot integrator” that creates value through robotics using its own knowledge and data.³

Its best-known product was Pepper, a humanoid launched in June 2014.¹ The enterprise model, Pepper for Biz, was offered in Japan from October 2015 on a ¥55,000-a-month rental, with pre-installed apps for office reception and for approaching potential customers.⁴ Pepper appears in several front-of-house roles MetaRoles covers: from June 2016 two Belgian hospitals used it to greet patients at reception and direct or walk them to their doctor,⁵ and in spring 2018 the Smithsonian ran an experimental program with Pepper robots donated by SoftBank Robotics in six of its spaces.⁶ These cases are covered in AI and robot receptionists, event concierge and guide robots and AI in-store sales assistants.

Reuters reported in June 2021, citing sources and documents, that Pepper production had stopped in 2020 after about 27,000 units, that SoftBank was cutting jobs in its robotics business, and that the company had shifted its focus to products such as the cleaning robot Whiz.² The company’s own history lists Whiz sales from May 2019, more than 10,000 Whiz units sold worldwide by June 2020, the “Servi” food delivery and transport robot from September 2020, and its “Robot Integrator” strategy from October 2022.¹ In 2022 its European division was acquired by Germany’s United Robotics Group and renamed Aldebaran; SoftBank Robotics Group stayed on as a shareholder of United Robotics Group and as its master distributor in Japan and Asia, TechCrunch reported.⁷