Robot employees are all the rage right now with hotels, cruise lines and even airports recruiting mechanical devices to aid their human workers.
But while Royal Caribbean may have its robot bartenders and Crowne has its ‘botlr’, these artificial employees lack the intelligence and intuitive capabilities of the Costa Group’s Pepper.
What’s a Pepper?
Well, Pepper is the world’s first humanoid robot capable of not only following instructions but reading human emotions (sounds a little creepy).
Built last year, Pepper was fitted with a high-level interface that is capable of analysing expressions and voice tones. He uses these capabilities to communicate with humans and provide help or entertainment where necessary.
Standing at 120cm and weighing a mere 28kg, Pepper will join the Costa Group aboard its Costa Cruises and AIDA ships.
The first ship to welcome the humanoid is AIDAprima followed by Costa Diadema early next year. This will be followed by the rest of the ships throughout the year.
Onboard, they will be required to provide recommendations and tips on restaurants, events and excursions. They’ll also have multi-lingual capabilities to communicate with cruisers from all walks of life.
While the future sounds a little comforting to me, Michael Thamm, the CEO of the Costa Group, said having an emotional robot onboard continues the company’s tradition of innovation.
“I am confident that our guests will love Pepper.”
Michael Thamm, Costa Group CEO
