I Am the Robot: A VR Based Wizard of Oz System for the Humanoid Robot Pepper
Paper in proceeding, 2026

This late-breaking report presents a Wizard of Oz control system that uses virtual reality equipment to operate the humanoid robot Pepper. The system enables control by mirroring the operator’s movement within the physical space, including body and head rotation, and arm movements directly onto the robot. The system was evaluated in a study setup with two participant groups: users and operators. Results showed that the system was effective in simulating natural robot behaviour, while being intuitive and engaging.

pepper

virtual reality

wizard of oz

human-robot interaction

Author

Sofia Thunberg

University of Gothenburg

Chalmers, Computer Science and Engineering (Chalmers), Interaction Design and Software Engineering

Uppsala University

Aris Alissandrakis

University of Gothenburg

Chalmers, Computer Science and Engineering (Chalmers), Interaction Design and Software Engineering

Timmy Bolinder

Student at Chalmers

Melker Forslund

Student at Chalmers

Elias Lycke

Student at Chalmers

Tobias Pettersson

Student at Chalmers

Marcus Saméus

Student at Chalmers

Robin Åsberg

Student at Chalmers

Companion Proceedings of the 21st ACM IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction Hri Companion 2026

10-14
9798400723216 (ISBN)

21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, HRI Companion 2026
Edinburgh, United Kingdom,

Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)

Robotics and automation

Human Computer Interaction

DOI

10.1145/3776734.3794345

More information

Latest update

5/4/2026 7