For more than a decade, the French robotics company Aldebaran has built some of the most popular robots used in academic research. Go to most university robotics departments and you’ll find either Pepper, the iconic three-wheeled humanoid robot, or its smaller two-legged sibling, Nao.

These fast became the robots of choice for many academics for all research into the capabilities and potential of social robots. They are quick to set up and easy to use out of the box, without the need for any programming skills or engineering knowledge.

With base prices at around £17,000 for Pepper and £8,000 for Nao – typically plus a few thousand pounds more for extras, online training sessions, service plans, warranties and so on – the robots could be purchased via university research grants.

With Pepper robots also appearing in customer service jobs, for example in HSBC banks across the US, buyers were attracted by the lure of long-term educational and financial benefits from a state-of-the-art tech supplier. Aldebaran says it has sold approximately 37,000 machines worldwide (20,000 Naos and 17,000 Peppers).

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However, the company stopped developing Pepper robots in 2021, having struggled to sell as many as it had hoped, and was offloaded by long-time Japanese owner Softbank.

In February of this year, Alderbaran

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