SoftBank Robotics

Nao, a small humanoid robot needed a vocabulary with which to communicate its personality and brand positioning as well as to guide users through their interactions with it. SoftBank robotics UX sounded like the right idea to complete the user experience with human to machine interactions.

The robot had to attract, welcome, inform, warn, teach and learn. In fact it required a repertoire of over 100 sounds and those needed to be related to a single sound universe. The sound could neither be too eerily human-like nor coldly robotic.

In order to establish a sound universe, the audio designers began by creating a musical composition to guide their efforts.  The music was friendly, energetic and young with a touch of synthesized shading that evoked an approachable robot, humanlike, but not exactly human.

Beyond the mere functional sounds, like “battery low,” “start up” and “shut down,” the robot was imbued with personality and in the end, could giggle, say “yuck” and express surprise as well. All the SoftBank robotics UX short sounds and signals were contained within a single sonic territory.

SoftBank Robotics designs and manufactures interactive and friendly humanoid robots.

They believe in a future where human-shaped robots will help humans in their day-to-day lives.

Friendly, approachable, sound package for a small humanoid robots.