Five Robotics Failures and What Developers Can Learn From Them

SoftBank pulls the plug on Pepper

​SoftBank, which acquired Aldebaran Robotics in 2012, had made the Nao and Pepper humanoids the centerpiece of its service robotics strategy.

However, the Nao was primarily used in academia, and Pepper’s limited capabilities and non-rugged design found relatively few retailer customers. SoftBank Group Corp. last month said it had stopped producing Pepper and was laying people off.

An entire list could be devoted to service and humanoid robot struggles. However, note that SoftBank may have a strategy behind its recent moves, such as selling Boston Dynamics Inc. to Hyundai Motor Group. Boston Dynamics makes the humanoid Atlas robot and is commercializing its Spot quadruped.

SoftBank may have realized that the engineering for humanoid robots is still difficult and costly. The company’s focus on its Whiz cleaning robot and recent stake in ASRS provider AutoStore reflects the more limited but practical applications currently possible.