SoftBank's vision is one filled with more robots. The Japanese conglomerate has made a string of investments in robotics companies from cleaning to warehouses in the few years. Now it wants to bring robots to restaurants, which are facing a shortage of human workers. SoftBank Robotics America, a subsidiary of SoftBank, has partnered with Gausium, a Chinese robotics startup, to expand its autonomous cleaning and service robots to the US. With the purpose of automating certain tasks, the Scrubber 50 Pro can scrub, sweep, dust, mop, and sanitize.

SoftBank Robotics America (SBRA), the North American arm of SoftBank, and Gausium, a provider of autonomous cleaning and service robots, announced a new partnership to deploy indoor automated robots in the US. SBRA and Gausium will work to help companies adopt, integrate and scale robotic solutions within their organizations. The partnership will focus on two solutions: X1, a running and bussing solution for the food service industry, and Scrubber 50 Pro (S50), a robotic floor scrubber powered by artificial intelligence. "SBRA is the right partner to bring our products to market throughout the U.S.," said Allen Zhang, Chief of Overseas Business of Gausium. "Their holistic customer support continues after the point of sale and ensures all adopters are receiving the expected return on experience and investment when utilizing our robots."

Brady Watkins, is the Senior Vice President and General Manager at SoftBank Robotics America, a company that is becoming a worldwide leader in robotics solutions. What drew you to robotics initially? I came from the video game industry where I was fully steeped in helping to commercialize one-of-a-kind player experiences with cutting-edge development and technology. In that field, I was inspired by seeing firsthand how hardware, software, and talent can deliver joy and a happier day-to-day to end-users through unique experiences. I found direct parallels in robotics, with the added element of packaging both virtual and physical elements into one solution.

Listen, humans are great and all, but sometimes they're horrible. That's especially true if you've just spent 12 hours stuck in a flying aluminum tube with a few hundred of them. Now all you want to do is lock yourself in a hotel room, and for the love of all that is holy get away from humans. The cursed fates dictate that someone's gotta check you into your hotel. So you roll into the lobby, heartbroken, to find humans behind the counter, but also a humanoid robot called Pepper.

Humanoid robots who are all named Pepper, are greeting shoppers in two Westfield malls in California. They will be at the malls during the holiday season and might go well beyond that, according to Steve Carlin, the vice president and general manager for Softbank Robotics America. The friendly robots welcome the shoppers to the mall, dance with them, or play games with them like card matching. The Pepper robots can also take selfies and teach six languages to anyone who's interested, as well as conduct a customer service survey. Pepper ready to welcome visitors (Image Credit: SFGate) There's no plan to replace human clerks with the robots, though.

This 4-foot-tall robot with a tablet for a chest may soon find its way to a big-box store near you. Omar Abdelwahed, Head of Studio at SoftBank Robotics America, demos the capabilities of a humanoid robot, called Pepper, which is supposed to help customers shop in stores. SAN FRANCISCO – The four-foot tall robot whirling around the new offices of SoftBank Robotics America could well be your big-box store greeter of the near future. "Hi, I'm Pepper," says the sentient hunk of whirling white plastic and blinking lights. That remains to be seen.