PePUT: A Unity Toolkit for the Social Robot Pepper

Abstract

This paper introduces the Pepper Python Unity Toolkit (PePUT), a toolkit for controlling and using the social robot Pepper via Unity and Python. As toolkit components, we present implementations for the speech- and tablet-control, as well as animation and navigation, which can be directly used within Unity. With it, we provide the opportunity of a virtual testbed for the social robot Pepper. In addition, we highlight potential use cases for the components, in particular in a smart environment, as well as the use of PePUT as a research tool. The toolkit with the presented components and the source files are publicly available as open-source project <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1</sup> under the MIT license via GitLab for usage, replication, and extension.