Japan's prowess in robotics technology is unparalleled, and I'm sure you have heard of Pepper, the humanoid robot that has taken the world by storm. An intelligent robot that not only differentiates between male and female voices but also converses with people in English, French, Japanese and Spanish, it proves itself to be an invaluable staff as it functions capably, be it as a sales assistant at Softbank outlets in Japan or a receptionist in Belgian hospitals! Another groundbreaking robot is Kirobo which actually achieved a feat that most humans won't be able to accomplish in their lifetime: go to space. That's right. Between August 2013 to February 2015, Kirobo spent a stint at the International Space Station (ISS). Armed with language processing technology, it was instrumental in keeping ISS Wakata Koichi company. Check out heartwarming videos of them talking on the Internet!

Interrupting your reading pleasure with a photo of Pepper and me

Due to an ageing population, Japan has always been relentless in developing robots that can take care of elderly and sick people, thus easing the labour crunch. What takes the cake is that some of these robots are adorable to bits. For example, Paco is a "carebot" that is in the form of a seal and helps uplift the spirits of old and ill patients as they feel upbeat stroking its cute fur! These benefits of robots have been found to be applicable in other fields such as the retail industry. Recently, the robot that has captured the public imagination is Pepper, a humanoid robot which can detect your mood and adjust its speech patterns accordingly to create rapport with you. It now serves customers at more than 140 Softbank Mobile stores all over Japan, so see if you can become fast pals with it.