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Angelica Lim: 15

Teaching Robots to Feel Number of languages

Pepper speaks

• Over 2,000 companies
around the world have
As a girl, Angelica Lim loved the purchased Pepper.
robot maid Rosie from the TV • In the United States, you
cartoon show The Jetsons. She can find Pepper at some

wondered if Rosie had human HSBC banks and several
feelings. Lim has spent her career Smithsonian Museums. A conference
trying to create a real-life Rosie. • Pepper is neither male nor attendee takes
female. But people usually a selfie with
She was born in California in 1985 call it a he or a she. Pepper.
and raised in Vancouver, Canada.
Her mother was a computer
programmer. Lim wanted to be DEVELOPMENTAL ROBOTICS

like her mom. She received her
bachelor’s degree in computer Developmental roboticists are caregivers to their robots. When
science from Simon Fraser a robot’s battery is low, the roboticist treats it like a crying baby.
University in Vancouver. Over time, the robot learns that having low energy is associated
with sad human facial expressions and sad language, like “poor
In 2009, Lim went to baby.” When the robot’s battery is charged, the roboticist plays
Kyoto University in Angelica with it. The robot learns that a sense of having high energy equals
Japan. She earned her Lim in happy human facial expressions and language.

master’s degree and 2012.
her PhD in computer
science. Her focus was
on artificial intelligence (AI) and After graduating, Lim went to Paris to Lim became a professor at Simon
robotics. While studying for her PhD, work for SoftBank, the company that Fraser University in 2017. She
she worked on Pepper. This was created Pepper. Her job was to make works there today on developmental
the world’s first humanoid public. The first 1,000 sold out in 60 Pepper act and speak like a human. robotics. She named her

22 robot to go on sale to the seconds. lab the Rosie Lab. 23