At a glance BUDDY is a companion robot that improves your daily life. BUDDY protects your home, entertains your kids, take care of seniors & helps you stay connected with your loved ones. Not content with being just a companion, BUDDY is also democratising robotics. BUDDY is open-source technology platform for developers. 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. It s time to join the robotic revolution.
The facts 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. 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
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 providing companionship and help with day to day activities. With BUDDY, carers can use video to check in remotely with their 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 he even stores your grocery lists!
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
Edutainment BUDDY is a playmate who will have fun with your children (hideand-seek, red light, green light...) By storing learning materials, BUDDY can test your children on their homework BUDDY introduces the world of digital technology to children a fun & engaging learning process BUDDY isn t simply a companion robot. He s 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.
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.
The journey BUDDY is the brainchild of Rodolphe Hasselvander. Before founding BLUE FROG ROBOTICS and building BUDDY, Rodolphe was the Executive Director for CRIIF a private research laboratory in robotics for almost a decade. His research led him to the field of sophisticated robots & 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, we will all have our own R2D2 at home. Time progressed, and the world still woefully lacks R2D2 s 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 offered real, humanlike help and services. And crucially, at an affordable price. And so, BUDDY the world s first companion robot available to all was born.
For developers
The App Developer s best friend BUDDY has a big dream: to democratise the field of robotics. This is why BUDDY is based on an open-source platform. BUDDY was purposely built to be compatible 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 and a SDK to enable the developer community to start working with BUDDY straight away. Based on an open source model, Buddy can be enhanced with software and hardware plugins. Developers will be able to build custom software to make buddy smarter and hardware tools to make BUDDY a real personal friend. If you purchase the BUDDY Developer Edition through our Indiegogo campaign, you will be enrolled in the BUDDY Developer Program, which provides early access to BUDDY s SDK, technical support and access to BUDDY community.
Buddy s SDK includes Visual programming tool based on unity 3D Advanced tools to create new libraries Technologies used on the robot such as navigation, voice, facial and object recognition, text to speech and communication Animation, graphic and sound libraries Example of programs and tutorial A simulator that gives developers the ability to create and observe more animations, timelines and behaviors without a robot With BUDDY, the possibilities are endless.
The team Here at BUDDY, we believe that an awesome team is the key to an incredible project. Rodolphe HASSELVANDER Co-founder & CEO A pioneer in professional and personal service robotics, Rodolphe spent ten years of his career as Executive Director at CRIIF, a robotics research laboratory. Franck DE VISME Co-founder & COO 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 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 VERRAES CMO 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 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 COLLARD R&D engineer 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 Benoit is a robotics enthusiast and a mechatronic engineer. His expertise lies in humanoid robot development: hardware, software & autonomous behaviour algorithms. Michael Cocquempot Engineer After developing for video games, Mickael specialized in Unity3D development and human-robot interactions. Ulysse Vautier Engineer Ulysse is specialized in robotics, with expertise in signal processing and autonomous navigation system. Walid Abderrahmani Engineer Walid is specialized in robotics, with expertise in network solutions and telepresence. 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. JAllal le coq SEM expert 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. kunthirvy dy Community Manager Kunthirvy joins us from Aldebaran Robotics, where she was the AI Lab s Communications Manager. She is responsible for leading digital communication and managing our awesome BUDDY community. Proudly, BUDDY s industrial design partner is OVA Design.
The campaign We have chosen crowdfunding as the route to market for BUDDY as we want to give early adopters the chance to test BUDDY before it hits the mass market. Furthermore, we want to cultivate a thriving community of developers. We re keen on working with talented and innovative developers as they will help us design and augment BUDDY before bringing it to mass market. BUDDY s campaign begins on 7th July 2015 on Indiegogo. It runs for 35 days and will have a target of $100,000 USD. Follow our campain: http://igg.me/at/buddy-companion-robot Super Early Bird backers can purchase their own Classic BUDDY from as little as $499*, and Developer Edition BUDDY for $599*. After Super Early Bird, prices will be set at $649* and $749* for Classic BUDDY and Developer Edition BUDDY, respectively. Buy 2 Classic BUDDY s for $999* and save $299 on original price. For $849*, backers can purchase the BUDDY Premium Pack, which includes a projector arm and docking station. Finally, our VIP option. For $4,999*, design your BUDDY with us to create a totally unique BUDDY, signed and engraved by the whole team. As a VIP, you ll also receive a dinner in your honour with the CEO & BUDDY team, travel and accommodation to Paris, a BUDDY premium pack and a private demo. *Plus shipping costs of $50 for one BUDDY and $100 for two BUDDY s
Project Timeline We are incredibly excited to bring BUDDY to the crowdfunding community and change the face of robotics. We have only two words for you: get involved!