Commercial Robot Features Facial Recognition, Mood Estimation

CloudMinds is launching a new rent-a-robot program that will make it easier for customers to get their hands on cloud-based service robots. The Smart Robots available to customers have a humanoid design and natural language processing (NLP) capabilities that will facilitate conversations and other interactions in multiple languages.

The service seems to be geared primarily towards enterprise customers that may want to use the robot to create unique experiences for guests at conferences and other industry events. However, CloudMinds indicated that the robots are able to dance and perform other gestures, and can be deployed for entertainment at weddings and high-end social gatherings.

“We’re making intelligent cloud service robots – which have only been within reach for select companies up to this point – accessible to everyday people and businesses through a revolutionary new rental program,” said CloudMinds Founder and CEO Bill Huang.

“Our robots are engineered to work alongside our rental clients to surprise and delight their customers and guests, while creating memorable interactions and lasting impressions,” added Alberto Scherb, the Senior Director of the Smart Robot rental program.

The company’s Cloud Pepper robot is currently the only robot available through the program, though the line is expected to expand with Cloud Cleaning, Cloud Assistant, Cloud Patrol and Cloud Vending options. The Cloud Pepper robot can detect human moods and uses facial recognition to identify guests that it has already interacted with on previous occasions.

The Cloud Pepper is the result of a collaboration between CloudMinds and Softbank Robotics, the latter of which was one of the developers of the original Pepper robot. The Cloud Pepper builds on that foundation with CloudMinds’ proprietary cloud-based AI tech, and will be available on a daily, monthly, or long-term basis for a starting rate of $5,500.

Pizza Hut previously used Pepper to take orders in Asia in 2016. Hoomano also played a key role in the development of the original Pepper bot. The Syscom Group and Cheetah Mobile have since developed their own service robot solutions.

(Originally posted on Mobile ID World)