The Bainbridge High School competitive robotics team, Spartronics 4915, was recently visited by an industry expert from Aldebaran Robotics — along with a very special guest.

The students got to meet and view a demonstration of the capabilities of “Pepper,” a humanoid robot, by SoftBank Robotics’ Nicolas Rigaud from the French headquarters of SoftBank’s main robotics division Aldebaran Robotics. Pepper is an “emotionally intelligent” robot, meaning it is able to read emotions. It is now used by several large firms, including Nestle.

Rigaud talked to students and team mentors about the challenges programmers and software and hardware designers face in creating better consumer experiences when interacting with humanoid robots and also the importance of emotional intelligence.