At a glance - Blue Frog Robotics

At a glance
Say hello to BUDDY,
The Companion Robot Accessible to Everyone
BUDDY is a companion robot that improves your daily life.
BUDDY protects your home, offers assistance in the kitchen, entertains
the family with music and videos, acts as a calendar and alarm clock
and interfaces with popular smart home solutions, among many other
activities.
BUDDY is an ideal “edutainer” for children. He tells stories and plays
games, including interactive spelling and counting games. Our
programming tool kit for kids lets children set up BUDDY’s facial
expressions and program his movements.
Not content with being just a companion, BUDDY is also democratizing
robotics. BUDDY is built on an open-source technology platform
making it easy for global developers to build applications.
www.bluefrogrobotics.com
About BUDDY
BUDDY is:
●
22-inches/56cm tall, 5 kg in weight and with a battery life of 8-10 hours.
●
BUDDY’s brain is an integrated, 8 inch smart tablet with built
in Wifi and bluetooth.
●
BUDDY has 3D vision. A conventional camera, IR camera and IR
laser projector allows BUDDY to easily track and interpret hand,
arm and head movements, distinguish among objects, faces,
animals, plants, etc., and gauge the depth of objects in his sight.
●
Fully mobile, with three wheels and a plethora of sensors allowing
him to travel, learn & interact with the world around him
●
Equipped with state of the art Artificial Intelligence
technology, including face & object detection, recognition
and tracking
●
Able to hear, speak and make coinciding head movements
●
BUDDY is full of personality and reacts to his environment through
a range of expressions that allow him to better engage with his
family. He has a high level of kawaii, or cuteness, whether he’s
happy, grumpy, angry or sad. If it’s too cold, his teeth may even
chatter!
●
BUDDY’s design partner is Ova Design of Ivry-sur-Seine, France
and his manufacturing partner is Jabil Circuit, Inc.,
headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida.
www.bluefrogrobotics.com
What can BUDDY do?
Communication &
Companionship
●
BUDDY can make a video call while following you – ideal for
Skype with friends and relatives.
●
BUDDY augments the care of younger, older and less mobile
people by providingcompanionship and help with day-to-day
activities. Among other things, with BUDDY, family members can
use video to check in remotely with loved ones.
●
BUDDY plays or reads messages sent through the BUDDY app
and delivers them to specific people.
●
Use BUDDY as a calendar, alarm clock & to do list. BUDDY reminds you about important events and appointments and
even stores your grocery lists!
www.bluefrogrobotics.com
Home security
●
Log into BUDDY from anywhere in the world and check up on
your home through his eyes
●
BUDDY patrols your home while you are away. Thanks to his
integrated sensors, he can alert you when dectecting fires, floods, burglars or any unusual situation
●
Use BUDDY to monitor your appliances and energy usage
www.bluefrogrobotics.com
Edutainment
●
By storing learning materials, BUDDY can test children on their
homework.
●
BUDDY introduces the world of digital technology to children – a
fun & engaging learning process
In addition to being a companion robot, BUDDY is also a modular
platform that can be infinitely built upon and expanded with
accessories to make your daily life easier, safer and a little more fun.
www.bluefrogrobotics.com
Elderly Care
BUDDY is an excellent companion for older people.
He ensures the wellbeing of senior citizens at home by providing
social interaction and assistance. BUDDY reminds older people about
upcoming events, appointments and deliveries.
For carers, BUDDY can monitor the homes of the elderly. BUDDY can
detect falls and unusual activity and provide medication reminders.
Crucially, BUDDY can ease loneliness by providing social interaction. With
BUDDY, the elderly can access technology such as Skype & FaceTime
with much more simplicity.
www.bluefrogrobotics.com
For developers
BUDDY has a big
dream:to democratize
the field of robotics.
This is why BUDDY is based on an open-source platform.
BUDDY was purposely built with popular development tools (like
Arduino, OpenCV and Unity3D) to allow as many developers as
possible to collaborate with us. We are also developing a complete
API to enable the developer community to start working with BUDDY.
In addition to software,developers will be able to build custom
hardware based solutions that BUDDY can interact with.
Anyone who purchased the BUDDY Developer Edition through our
Indiegogo campaign is enrolled in the BUDDY Developer Program,
which provides BUDDY’s SDK, technical support and access to the
BUDDY community.provides early access to BUDDY’s SDK, technical
support and access to BUDDY community.
www.bluefrogrobotics.com
Buddy’s SDK includes
●
Web based C++/ Csharp visual programming tool and tutorials to make easier integration with applications (GIThub).
●
A library of animations, sounds and vocalizations.
●
Text-to-speech tool for BUDDY’s voice.
●
Unity 3D, a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity
Technologies, making it easy for anyone to work with BUDDY -including indie game developers.
●
A virtual simulator that gives developers the ability to create and
observe more basic animations, timelines and behaviors without
a robot.
With BUDDY, the possibilities are endless.
www.bluefrogrobotics.com
The journey
BUDDY is the brainchild of Rodolphe Hasselvander, CEO and president
of Blue Frog Robotics.
Before founding Blue Frog Robotics and building BUDDY, Rodolphe was
the executive director of CRIIF – a private research laboratory in robotics
– for almost a decade. His research led him to the field of sophisticated
robots and artificial intelligence for professional application in areas
such as security, construction, surgery and personal assistance.
Rodolphe’s fascination with robots bloomed in childhood. After watching
movies like “Star Wars,” he became convinced that one day people
would be able to have an R2-D2 at home.
Time progressed, and the world still woefully lacks R2-D2s for the family.
Rodolphe decided to take matters into his own hands and created a
product for the mass market. He used advanced technologies to build
a robot that offers real, human-like help and services at an affordable
price.
And so, BUDDY – the world’s first companion robot available to all – was
born.
www.bluefrogrobotics.com
www.bluefrogrobotics.com
The team
Here at BUDDY, we believe that an awesome team is the key to an
incredible project.
Rodolphe HASSELVANDER
Co-founder & CEO
Franck DE VISME
Co-founder & COO
A pioneer in professional and personal
service robotics, Rodolphe spent ten years
of his career as Executive Director at CRIIF, a
robotics research laboratory.
An entrepreneur by nature, Franck cofounded Hanakai, and is the former CEO of
both Tetraedge and Earthlings. He is also a
skilled mentor for innovative startups (NUMA).
Jean-Michel MOURIER
CTO
Maud VERRAES
CMO
Jean-Michel is a passionate robotics
engineer with expertise in autonomous
navigation, vision, electronic architecture
and intelligence. Previously, he worked on
several high profile robotics projects in both
industry and the lab.
Maud is a marketing leader. She has
extensive experience in developing
innovative and high-tech products and
solutions, including personal robots. Formerly,
she worked with NEC.
Isabelle DENISE
Administrative Manager
Basile COLLARD
R&D engineer
Isabelle joins us with a background in law
and journalism. Versatile and with lightning
speed reactivity, she is the right-hand
woman to the CEO.
Basile’s childhood fascination with robots
led him to specialise in electronic and
software architecture. He’s worked as an
independent developer for ten years.
Benoit PIRONNET
R&D engineer
Walid Abderrahmani
Engineer
Benoit is a robotics enthusiast and a
mechatronic engineer. His expertise lies in
humanoid robot development: hardware,
software & autonomous behaviour
algorithms.
Walid is specialized in robotics, with expertise
in network solutions and telepresence.
JAllal le coq
SEM expert
Ulysse Vautier
Engineer
Ulysse is specialized in robotics, with expertise
in signal processing and autonomous
navigation system.
With more than 8 years of experience in SEO,
PPC & Google Analytics, we are excited to
have Jallal on board as our search engine
marketing expert.
Antoine GABORIAU
Designer
Antoine is an accomplished graphic
designer, who specialises in graphics, web
design, UI and 2D animation. Over the course
of his career, he has been key to the growth
of a multitude of startups.
Blue Frog Robotics
is headquartered at
10 rue Coquillière,
75001 Paris, France.
US locations are:
50 Milk Street, 16th floor
Boston, MA 02109
www.bluefrogrobotics.com
2415 Third Street, Suite 231
San Francisco, CA 94107
What they’re saying
about BUDDY
BUDDY has enjoyed widespread, favorable media coverage.
Here are a few examples:
Wall Street Journal, 10/15/15, Why Your Gadgets Can Now ‘See’ in 3-D
Engadget, 9/6/15, Buddy the robot wants to be your modern-day Rosie
Mashable, 7/9/15, Rolling Buddy may just kill you with cuteness
TechCrunch, 8/31/2015, Buddy Is A Really, Really, Ridiculously Cute
Family Robot
Cnet, 11/8/15, A roving robot Buddy to watch over your home
SDTimes, 7/21/15, Blue Frog Robotics announces BUDDY SDK and
developer program
The Washington Post, 7/21/15, Why social robots could be coming soon
to a home near you
Toms Guide, 7/9/15, Buddy Robot Protects Your Home, Entertains Kids
Cnet (video), Buddy the robot protector looks like R2-D2’s first cousin:
Crave
BBC news, 8/10/15, Buddy Robot Snubs Creator
International Business Times, 8/5/15, Buddy the robot is ‘more useful
than an iPhone’
www.bluefrogrobotics.com
The campaign
Blue Frog Robotics chose crowdfunding as the route to market for
BUDDY to give early adopters the chance to test BUDDY before it hits
the mass market. In addition, Blue Frog wanted to cultivate a thriving
community of developers. The company is excited about working
with talented and innovative developers as they design and augment
BUDDY before he is delivered to the mass market.
Super Early Bird backers were able to purchase Classic BUDDY for $499*
and the Developer Edition BUDDY for $599*. Following the Super Early
Bird period of the campaign, prices were set at $649* and $749* for
Classic BUDDY and Developer Edition BUDDY, respectively, and $999
for two Classic BUDDYs. For $849*, backers were able to purchase the
BUDDY Premium Pack, which includes a projector arm and docking
station.
We were incredibly excited to bring BUDDY to the crowdfunding
community and change the face of robotics.
www.bluefrogrobotics.com
Contact
For U.S press enquiries, please contact
Jim Barbagallo - [email protected]
For E.U press enquiries, please contact
Julien Vermessen - [email protected]
mybuddyrobot
Blue Frog Robotics
www.bluefrogrobotics.com
@BlueFrogRobotic
@adoptbuddy