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Blue Frog Robotics: Developing Amazing Emotional Robots with Passion

Robotics is said to be the next technological revolution. The advances in robotics and AI are happening rapidly and the demand for consumer robotic solutions is growing. We are moving towards a world full of robots shifting from a phase largely dominated by domestic robots (e.g., vacuums, mops and lawnmowers) into robots engaging directly with humans in the form of personal assistants or family companions. Tomorrow, companion robots will be part of our lives as the smartphone is one of them today although we would never have imagined it at first. We can say that for successful customer adoption, “Emotional Artificial Intelligence” is the key. By understanding this technological shift Blue Frog Robotics has introduced BUDDY Robot and redefined the way we interact with technologies by creating a user-friendly, proactive and engaging interface with an unbeatable charm. Fundamentally, BUDDY is about a new way of interacting with technology, is a new entertainment platform, security system and assistant for all the family, able to grow and learn with each member to enable richer interactions, while enhancing the quality of life at all age.
Blue Frog Robotics is a cutting-edge French start-up and developer of BUDDY, the first Emotional Robot for the all family, with dedicated services for B2B2C supported by emotional interactions and autonomous behaviors.
BUDDY: The Emotional Robot
BUDDY is the emotional companion that connects, protects, and interacts with each member of the family. BUDDY can secure, assist, connect and entertain elders at home or in senior housing. He is also the perfect emotional robot to teach and play with children especially those with special needs. This ready to go market, emotional platform, and robot solution address also robot manufacturers, distributors or licensees that need robots with “smart” and emotional capacities (behavior, adaptability, proactivity, etc.).
The architect behind the Blue Frog Robotics
Rodolphe Hasselvander is the CEO and Founder of Blue Frog Robotics. He is a pioneer engineer and entrepreneur in industrial & personal robotics. He has been working in robotics for over 20 years, including Artificial Intelligence, educational and assistance robots, autonomous cars and platforms, humanoid robots and other kinds of robots for logistic, defense, surgery & construction. He has been leading the CRIIF, a well-known French robotics lab and decided in 2014 to create to transfer these high robotics technologies in accessible robots like BUDDY for consumers. Rodolphe had always the dream to develop an emotional companion robot to change the life of millions of people. Challenge achieved as after 4 years of R&D, we are ready for global B2B2C deployment in 2019.
The Inception of Buddy Robot
Blue Frog Robotics team had the desire to make robots that will help people to live a better life. After developing robots for nuclear, healthcare and defense applications, the company believes that the time for consumer robotics has come. At first, the original idea of BUDDY was born out of the need to help the elderly to live alone longer with the aim at answering a challenging issue: overcoming loneliness and isolation of people by erasing the complexity of technology. Therefore, the company created an endearing and cute robot that people want to bond with. When Blue Frog Robotics started to introduce BUDDY to the public, he has been received so warmly by many users. Therefore, the company decided that their product had to match the current needs for daily life at all age and developed it with three sacrosanct principles: create empathy, make it accessible to the greatest number and scalable/upgradeable.
Exclusive Offerings from Blue Frog Robotics
Blue Frog Robotics develops a disruptive product, especially endearing, to have a significant impact on business and society. It creates a simple, reliable, mass-market product that can evolve easily and erase the technology’s complexity in favor of useful services. As the technology advances with giant strides, BUDDY is not intended to be embedded in a sclerotic model. The robot must, therefore, be able to integrate many applications. Since BUDDY is built on a modular and flexible platform, the global community of BUDDY hardware and software developers can easily enrich the portfolio of applications specifically targeted to professionals, including Eldercare, Education and IoT industries.
Improving Continuously to Serve Distinctly
Blue Frog Robotics has already signed with some key corporate partners to start full-scale tests with BUDDY. Among them, the European leader in Ageing-Well, KORIAN, who will start experimentation with elderly, based on the unique capabilities of BUDDY to provide permanent assistance for both health caregiver and senior (safety/security, 24Hr monitoring service, alert generation, social link, entertainment etc.).
The company also have other projects under development within the Education field (Robot Avatar to help sick children stay connected with schoolmates) and with a Healthcare major player to develop a therapy robot for special kids.
On hospitality services, Blue Frog worked with SNCF (French railway company) to create and unique and original travel experience on board where BUDDY animates the iDTGV wagon bar and with SOMFY (world leader in door and window automation for the home and building industry) to drive clients’ visit inside the brand-new experience center at their headquarter.
Benefits for Customers
In order to deliver the most acceptable, usable and emphatic robot, Blue Frog Robotics creates and develops a modular endorsed EAIF (Emotional AI Framework) for their clients to build innovative and differentiating solutions, services and applications for enhanced customer experience creation. By allowing robots to have meaningful interactions with end-users, clients can create a more personalized user experience and increase business value.
Future Roadmap of Blue Frog and Robots
At Blue Frog, whole team is passionate about bringing personal robotics to the next level. Their goal is that everyone to adopt his emotional companion robot. BUDDY will be the first real emotion robot and other robots will follow, maybe bigger and able to do more “concrete” as true humanoid robots. “In ten or fifteen years, we will all have a robot in our house. After all, in the early 1980s, the personal computer was only a distant mirage,” asserts Rodolphe.