Friendly robot companion "Pepper" celebrates birthday with thyssenkrupp test tower

• The Test Tower viewing platform will reach its second birthday over the weekend of 5 and 6 October 2019. To mark the occasion, thyssenkrupp Elevator is delighted to welcome a very special guest to Rottweil, in the shape of the Pepper the social robot. Pepper is a veteran of a number of appearances on television and at trade fairs. He's an inquisitive, helpful chap, and promises to bring an extra dose of fun to Germany's highest viewing platform. As well as hosting a quiz about the Test Tower, he will also be available to pose for selfies with visitors, or to entertain them with a joke.

Pepper's visit is designed to test how social robots can be used to communicate with visitors. "We are definitely really excited to see what our visitors will think of Pepper," says Tower Manager Beate Höhnle. "We are delighted that there is still so much interest in the Test Tower, and we hope that having Pepper here for our birthday weekend will give our guests the chance to experience something new with the technology of the future."

"Pepper is really looking forward to going to the thyssenkrupp Test Tower", adds Thorben Seeland, a developer at ENTRANCE artificial intelligence in Wuppertal, western Germany. "This will be the highest we've ever taken him," says Seeland, who has already been working with Pepper for two-and-a-half years. Communicating with the clever little robot is easy and intuitive because he can use our body language, gestures and tone of voice to read our emotions and react accordingly.

Germany's highest viewing platform, perched 232 metres (761ft) off the ground, has developed into a major visitor attraction for the whole region, with a total of over 400,000 tickets having been sold since it opened in 2017. The Test Tower in Rottweil is used to test and certify the elevators of the future, and is particularly focused on the MULTI, the next generation of elevator technology. Three of the tower's twelve elevator shafts are dedicated to testing the new MULTI system, which is powered by the same magnet technology as the Transrapid levitating train. This unique drive system allows MULTI elevators to move sideways and to reach absolutely any height - the sky literally is the limit. This in turn allows buildings to be constructed to previously inconceivable designs. The tower is also used to test the latest generation of our TWIN elevators, which feature two cabs travelling through the shaft independently of each other. This technology is currently being installed in the huge Hudson Yards development in Manhattan, which will be the first building in New York equipped with TWIN elevators.

Photocopyright: Pepper by SoftBank Robotics