SoftBank's humanoid robot ‘Pepper’ to support Android

SoftBank Robotics Corp and SoftBank Corp on Thursday announced that their humanoid robot "Pepper" will support Google's Android, and that presales of models for developers will begin from July. Ahead of the presale launch, SoftBank Robotics will offer a beta version of Pepper SDK for Android Studio, a software development kit that enables the development of RoboApps on the Android platform.

By making Pepper compatible with Android, Android application developers will be able to utilize their existing knowledge and technologies to develop RoboApps for Pepper. With the high number of Android developers around the world, the possibilities for Pepper RoboApp developers will greatly increase with Android support.

SoftBank Robotics will continue to provide its SDK, Choregraphe. RoboApps developed on the Choregraphe platform will also be compatible with Peppers that support Android.

Details on presale of the model for developers and Pepper SDK for Android Studio are as follows.

Unit price: 198,000 yen Pepper Basic Plan: 11,800 yen × 36 months Pepper Insurance Pack: 9,800 yen × 36 months Total price (3 years): 975,600 yen

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