SoftBank Robotics — Pepper, NAO, and the commercial service robot era
SoftBank Robotics Group Corp. is the Tokyo-headquartered robotics arm of Japan's SoftBank Group, best known for launching Pepper — the world's first mass-produced humanoid robot — in June 2014, and for the NAO educational humanoid inherited from its 2012 acquisition of France's Aldebaran Robotics. Today the company operates primarily in commercial service robotics, led by the BrainOS-powered Whiz cleaning robot, while the current AI boom in humanoid robotics is being carried forward by Tesla Optimus, Figure AI, 1X, Apptronik, Agility Robotics, and Boston Dynamics (which SoftBank itself sold to Hyundai in 2021).
- 2012Founded
- Tokyo, JapanHeadquarters
- WhizLatest flagship
- TYO: 9984Parent (SoftBank Group)
- JapanCountry
- SubsidiaryStatus
About SoftBank Robotics
SoftBank Robotics Group Corp. was established in January 2012 in Tokyo as the dedicated robotics holding company of SoftBank Group, the Japanese multinational led by founder and chairman Masayoshi Son. From the outset, its charter was unusually ambitious for a large-cap operator: not to license a robot from a supplier, but to design and mass-produce an emotional humanoid for everyday consumer and commercial life. That charter was operationalized through the 2012 acquisition of Aldebaran Robotics, the Paris-based humanoid pioneer founded in 2005 by Bruno Maisonnier and already famous in academic circles for its NAO robot. SoftBank reportedly paid around $100 million for Aldebaran, giving it both a European engineering base and a shipping humanoid platform to build on.
The company's defining product moment came in June 2014, when Masayoshi Son unveiled Pepper in Tokyo — a 1.2-meter tall, wheeled emotional robot with a chest-mounted touchscreen designed to recognize faces, read emotions, and greet customers. Pepper was manufactured by Foxconn in China and Taiwan, sold to consumers in Japan starting in 2015, and rolled out to enterprise customers under the "Pepper for Biz" program. In parallel, SoftBank invested heavily in its robotics thesis: in June 2015, Alibaba Group and Foxconn Technology Group each took stakes with investments reported at JPY 14.5 billion, cementing Pepper as a flagship pan-Asian project. In November 2016 the parent entity formally rebranded itself as SoftBank Robotics Group Corp.
The company's platform bets did not stop at humanoids. In November 2017, SoftBank Robotics entered the commercial cleaning robot business, and in May 2019 it launched Whiz, an AI cleaning robot powered by Brain Corp's BrainOS autonomous driving platform. Whiz became the group's most successful product by unit volume: worldwide cumulative sales exceeded 10,000 units by June 2020, and by May 2022 SoftBank Robotics was ranked No. 1 worldwide in sales of commercial indoor service robots. During the same period SoftBank also invested in — and later divested — Boston Dynamics, acquired in 2017 from Alphabet and sold to South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group in a 2020–2021 transaction that valued Boston Dynamics at approximately $1.1 billion; SoftBank exited its remaining stake in 2026 in a follow-on sale reported at roughly $325 million.
The 2020s marked a strategic reset. Pepper production was halted in 2020 after roughly 27,000 units, and in 2022 SoftBank sold its Paris-based humanoid subsidiary SoftBank Robotics Europe to Germany's United Robotics Group — the entity reverted to its original Aldebaran name and continued Pepper and NAO under new ownership (before entering receivership in France in June 2025 and being acquired by China's Maxvision Technologies). SoftBank Robotics Group itself refocused on the Japanese and APAC service robot market: Servi (a delivery robot, 2020), STEAMA (a steam cooking robot, 2025), commercial cleaning, and logistics-automation partnerships with Berkshire Grey and AutoStore. The competitive landscape for humanoids has since shifted decisively to a new generation — Tesla Optimus, Figure AI, 1X, Apptronik, Agility Digit, and Boston Dynamics Atlas — but Pepper remains, in Guinness World Records' own recognition, the world's first mass-produced humanoid robot.
Product lineup: NAO, Pepper, Whiz, and the service-robot portfolio
SoftBank Robotics' product history spans three distinct generations: the small research-and-education humanoid NAO inherited from Aldebaran; the chest-height emotional humanoid Pepper co-developed with the Paris team and manufactured by Foxconn; and the current portfolio of commercial service robots led by the BrainOS-powered Whiz vacuum. A partnership-branded telepresence humanoid, the LG-collaborated Pilot-class concept, appeared in retail demonstrations but never reached the mass-production scale of Pepper.
NAO (from 2008) — the small research humanoid
NAO was developed by Aldebaran and first shipped in 2008 for the RoboCup competition. At roughly 57 cm tall and 5 kg, with 25 degrees of freedom in the latest V6 hardware, NAO became one of the most widely used research and education humanoids in the world — more than 13,000 units in service across more than 70 countries as of 2024. NAO ran on Aldebaran's NAOqi OS and was the technical foundation from which Pepper was designed.
Pepper (2014) — the emotional humanoid
Pepper is a 1.20-meter, 28-kilogram wheeled service humanoid unveiled in Tokyo in June 2014. It was designed to read basic human emotion from facial expressions and voice, powered by NAOqi OS, and used a lithium-ion battery pack delivering approximately 12 hours of retail operation. Manufactured by Foxconn in China and Taiwan, Pepper was deployed in SoftBank stores, banks, hotels, and reception halls in Japan and worldwide. Production was halted in 2020, though installed units remain in service and Pepper holds Guinness World Records' recognition as the world's first mass-produced humanoid robot.
Whiz (2019) — the BrainOS commercial vacuum
Whiz is SoftBank Robotics' most commercially successful platform to date: an autonomous commercial vacuum robot powered by BrainOS from Brain Corp. It clears roughly 500 m² per hour of carpeted floor at up to 1.8–2.5 km/h in a "teach and repeat" model, using a swappable 25.2 V lithium-ion pack for approximately three hours of runtime. Whiz is designed for airports, offices, hotels, retail, and hospitality, and cumulative worldwide sales exceeded 10,000 units by mid-2020.
| Model | Year | Height | Weight | Payload | Battery / Runtime | Actuators | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAO V6 | 2018 | ~0.57 m | ~5.5 kg | N/A | 62.5 Wh / ~90 min | 25 DoF electric | Education/research; 13,000+ units in 70+ countries |
| Pepper | 2014 | ~1.20 m | ~28 kg | N/A (interaction) | 30 Ah / 795 Wh / ~12 hr | ~20 DoF; wheeled base | First mass-produced humanoid; Foxconn-built |
| Whiz | 2019 | ~0.65 m | ~30 kg (35 w/ battery) | 4.0 L dust bag | 23.7 Ah, 25.2 V / ~3 hr | Autonomous drive; BrainOS | 10,000+ units by 2020; commercial cleaning |
| Servi | 2020 | ~1.20 m | ~45 kg | Up to ~35 kg (3 trays) | Li-ion / ~12 hr | Autonomous drive | Food-delivery robot; No. 1 serving-robot share |
Technology stack
SoftBank Robotics' platforms are the product of a two-decade combination of French humanoid engineering (originally Aldebaran) and Japanese-scale product operations. The technology stack differs significantly across the humanoid line (NAO, Pepper) and the newer commercial service line (Whiz, Servi), but both rely on tightly integrated perception, control, and power electronics that live at the intersection of consumer electronics and industrial automation.
Perception
Pepper carried 25 sensors and cameras — including 2D and 3D vision, four directional microphones for sound-source localization, laser and ultrasonic distance sensors, touch sensors on the head and hands, and inertial measurement in the torso — supporting basic face detection and emotion classification. NAO uses a comparable mix in a smaller form factor, with cameras in the head, four ultrasonic sensors, force-sensing resistors in the feet, and an inertial measurement unit. Whiz relies on the BrainOS sensor suite for obstacle avoidance and safe navigation of dynamic commercial spaces.
Control software and AI
NAO and Pepper both run on NAOqi OS, Aldebaran's proprietary robot operating system, with the Choregraphe development environment that made NAO ubiquitous in academic research. Whiz runs BrainOS from Brain Corp — the same commercial autonomy stack used by Tennant, Nilfisk, and other cleaning-equipment OEMs — and follows a teach-and-repeat workflow: an operator drives a route once, and the robot repeats it thereafter with sensor-level safety.
Actuators, power, and compute
SoftBank Robotics' humanoid platforms use small brushless electric actuators driven by embedded motor-controller boards, distributed across roughly 20–25 degrees of freedom on Pepper and NAO. Pepper's wheeled omnidirectional base uses a lithium-ion pack of 30 Ah / 795 Wh at approximately 26 V for a full retail shift, while NAO's compact cylindrical-cell pack runs 60–90 minutes of active use. Whiz and Servi use larger service-grade lithium-ion packs (23.7 Ah / 25.2 V on Whiz), with autonomous drive controllers and industrial power electronics tuned for continuous multi-hour duty cycles.
Even at this scale of humanoid, the electronic-components pressure is significant. Each joint's servo controller uses a compact BLDC motor-driver IC with associated current-sense passives; the newer commercial service robots increasingly rely on wide-bandgap semiconductors (SiC and GaN) in the motor-drive and charging stages to improve efficiency and thermals. Every power and signal rail is stabilized by precision MLCC capacitors and thin-film resistors, and the battery packs integrate battery-management ICs for cell balancing, thermal protection, and multi-stage overcurrent shutoff — subsystems whose availability directly controls how many robots the group can build in any given quarter.
Applications and commercial deployments
SoftBank Robotics has one of the longest deployment records of any humanoid or service-robot company. Its stated markets today are commercial cleaning, hospitality, food service, retail, and logistics — with historical humanoid deployments still influencing public perception of what a service robot can be.
- SoftBank Mobile stores, banks, and reception halls (Pepper). Pepper was the flagship greeter across SoftBank Mobile locations in Japan and rolled out to Mizuho Bank branches, hotels, department stores, and cruise ships — the first widespread consumer-facing humanoid deployment in the world.
- Commercial cleaning (Whiz). Whiz is deployed across offices, airports, shopping centers, hotels, and healthcare facilities worldwide; cumulative sales exceeded 10,000 units by June 2020, and SoftBank Robotics ranked No. 1 worldwide in commercial indoor service-robot sales by 2022.
- Food service and delivery (Servi). Servi is the group's autonomous food-delivery robot, deployed in restaurants and hospitality across Japan and APAC, and named No. 1 in serving-robot primary-vendor share in the 2024 Autonomous Mobile Robot Potential Analysis market study.
- Research and education (NAO). More than 13,000 NAO units are in use across more than 70 countries, primarily in universities, research labs, and K-12 computing programs — the largest installed base of any small humanoid robot.
- Logistics automation. Partnerships with SB Logistics, Berkshire Grey, AutoStore, and IRIS OHYAMA extend the group's reach into warehouse pick-and-pack, case-handling, and material movement.
The robotics supply chain — where Hybrid Electronics fits in
A modern humanoid or commercial service robot is one of the most component-dense products ever built. A single Pepper- or Whiz-class platform depends on thousands of individual electronic components: precision BLDC motor drivers, high-torque servo modules, IMUs and force-torque sensors, LiDAR and time-of-flight modules, GPU compute boards, battery-management ICs, wide-bandgap SiC/GaN power semiconductors, high-speed board-to-board connectors, precision resistors, and thousands of MLCC capacitors distributed across every power and signal rail.
Building that kind of hardware puts enormous pressure on the electronic-components supply chain. Prototype pilots and low-volume production runs frequently hit allocation, EOL notices, and long lead times on the exact parts they need, and R&D and field-service teams routinely have to support older platforms — such as the Aldebaran- and NAOqi-era humanoids — that use semiconductors no longer in mainstream distribution. During the current humanoid robotics and general-purpose robot AI boom, this pressure is amplified: dozens of well-funded teams are chasing the same short list of high-torque BLDC drivers, precision IMUs, GPU compute modules, and automotive-grade power semiconductors, and franchise stock on many key parts is now measured in months of lead time rather than weeks.
Hybrid Electronics has been sourcing electronic components for industrial and embedded systems since 1995. For robotics teams — humanoid, mobile, industrial, and research — we specialize in finding the parts you need when mainstream distribution can't:
Obsolete and end-of-life parts
Legacy semiconductors, sensors, connectors, and passives that are no longer in mainstream distribution — the parts that keep older platforms running during transitions to newer hardware, and the long-tail items that block a BOM from closing.
Allocated and hard-to-find active parts
High-torque BLDC motor drivers, IMUs and MEMS sensors, SiC/GaN power devices, GPU compute modules, precision resistors, and MLCC capacitors caught in allocation or long-lead times. Send us a BOM or a shortage list — we'll confirm what we can source and at what lead time.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded SoftBank Robotics?
SoftBank Robotics Group Corp. was established in January 2012 as the robotics holding company of SoftBank Group under founder and chairman Masayoshi Son. Its humanoid platforms — NAO and later Pepper — originated at Aldebaran Robotics, the Paris-based company founded in 2005 by Bruno Maisonnier and acquired by SoftBank in 2012 for approximately $100 million.
What is Pepper?
Pepper is SoftBank Robotics' 1.2-meter, 28-kilogram emotional humanoid service robot, unveiled in Tokyo in June 2014. It was manufactured by Foxconn in China and Taiwan and deployed in retail, hospitality, and reception environments. SoftBank halted Pepper production in 2020, and the platform was later recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's first mass-produced humanoid robot.
Where are SoftBank Robotics robots deployed commercially?
Whiz, the company's BrainOS-powered commercial vacuum robot, exceeded 10,000 cumulative worldwide units sold by June 2020 and is deployed across retail, office, airport, and hospitality facilities. Pepper was widely deployed in SoftBank Mobile stores, banks, and reception areas in Japan, and NAO is used in more than 70 countries across research and education.
How much did SoftBank pay for Aldebaran, and is SoftBank Robotics public?
SoftBank acquired Aldebaran Robotics in 2012 for approximately $100 million. SoftBank Robotics Group Corp. itself is a private subsidiary of publicly traded SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO: 9984). The European arm, SoftBank Robotics Europe, was sold to Germany's United Robotics Group in 2022 and reverted to its original Aldebaran name.
Is Hybrid Electronics affiliated with SoftBank Robotics?
No. Hybrid Electronics is an independent electronic-components sourcing company. We are not a distributor, reseller, or partner of SoftBank Robotics. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. Hybrid supports robotics developers by sourcing obsolete, allocated, and hard-to-find semiconductors, sensors, connectors, and passives for R&D, prototype, and low-volume production builds.
Can Hybrid help with components for humanoid robotics builds?
Yes. We regularly support R&D and integrator teams with hard-to-find semiconductors, BLDC motor-driver ICs, IMUs and other MEMS sensors, connectors, SiC/GaN power devices, and precision passives for the industrial and embedded boards used in robotics platforms. Send us a BOM or a short list of shortages and we'll confirm availability and pricing.
Trademark and affiliation notice. SoftBank Robotics®, Pepper®, NAO®, and Whiz® are trademarks of SoftBank Robotics Group Corp. and/or its affiliates; Aldebaran is a trademark of its current owner. Hybrid Electronics is an independent electronic-components sourcing company and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by SoftBank Robotics Group Corp., SoftBank Group Corp., or Aldebaran. All information on this page is compiled from public sources for educational and reference purposes.