Two Carnival Corporation cruise lines will be adding interactive humanoid robots to their cruise ships starting in the spring of 2016.
Carnival Corporation has signed an exclusive $1.1 million deal to use “Pepper” robots on their Costa Cruises and AIDA brands. The robots are developed by a subsidiary of Japan’s Softbank Group, Aldebaran.
Pepper will interact with guests and is designed to read and react to human emotion. The robots will help passengers with everything from tips on dining to recommendations on excursions. Pepper will be just under 4 feet tall and have three omnidirectional wheels. The robot will also have a 3D camera to detect passengers movements along with a 10 inch touch screen.
A successful trial run of the robots took place on board AIDAstella. AIDAprima and Costa Diadema will be the first cruise ships to feature the robots starting in the spring of 2016. The robots will roll to the rest of the fleet by the end of the summer.
Michael Thamm, Chief Executive at Costa Group, gave the following statement:
“With an emotional robot on board our cruise ships we are once again continuing our tradition of innovation. For us, this is an important step towards a digital future for our brands.”
Pepper is the first robot that is capable of reading human emotions. The robot will be fluent in English, Italian, and German.
Costa Cruises believes that Pepper will help improve the experience of the passengers on board, as well as provide help and entertainment.
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