Social Robot

After comparing multiple choices of robots, we decided to work with the Pepper robot for implementing and evaluating our system.

Pepper is a humanoid robot developed by SoftBank Robotics. It's chosen for its expressive embodiment and speech interaction capabilities. Pepper combines speech, gesture, and touchscreen communication, which allows it to provide verbal prompts, visual checklists, and empathic feedback during workplace interactions. Its integration with Choregraphe and Social Interaction Cloud also supports future connection to LLMs. Besides, the robot is compact and capable of moving autonomously, so it's easy to maneuver in different places. 

Pepper’s multimodal capabilities also align with the operational demands of workplace tasks and the cognitive factors identified in our situated cognition framework. Speech prompts and visual checklists guide employees through multi-step procedures, helping maintain attention and working memory, while gestures and structured feedback reduce stress and cognitive load. This supports task accuracy and user confidence without overloading the employee, ensuring the system meets both functional and cognitive support needs.

Compared to non-embodied agents or desktop companions, Pepper offers enhanced social presence, which can improve engagement and clarity during guidance. This does come with considerable trade-offs, which include higher cost, maintenance requirements, and mobility constraints.

However, in customer-facing spaces, safety and usability are considered: Pepper’s autonomous movement is slow and monitored, and its gestures and prompts are designed to avoid startling or obstructing employees.