>> Hello and welcome to this new episode of 1000110 Sartup
>> Today we are going to discover the companion robot BUDDY
>> So it’s in the office of Blue Frog Robotics in Paris that we went to discover this little robot and it’s creator, Rodolphe Hasselvander.
>> The story of Blue Frog Robotics, it’s the story of a dream.
>> When I was a kid, I wanted to build robots, I wanted a small R2-D2, like the one on your sweatshirt!
>> I became a robotics engineer and then for 10 years I was the manager of a private robotics research lab,
>> where we were building several kinds of robots for various applications.
>> Two years ago I thought it was time for to launch my own company, since the lab was not mine,
>> with the will to democratize robotics, since there was more and more robots in our houses,
>> such as robot vacuum cleaners and drones.
>> And because people were also using smartphones and tablets, we thought the timing was good.
>> And so two years ago I started working on the first BUDDY prototypes in my lab, so I could run some tests.
>> The design was different from now, but we could see if it was worthwhile : would people like this kind of robot and what would they do with it?
>> And a year and a half ago, I’ve created Blue Frog with a former business partner from my lab,
>> with whom I had already created a bunch of smartphone-driven robots.
>> And so we got into it, with me having the robotics view,leading the technical and scientifical sides,
>> and him being the business guy, a “serial entrepreneur” who had created several companies before, mostly in the gaming industry.
>> And so we partenered a year and a half ago to create Blue Frog.
>> With Bue Frog, our very first project, the first one we thought we would launch, was Samy, a tall robot.
>> It was a personal assistant robot, which could be used as an avatar, for example to help someone remotely,
>> to operate in a nuclear plant, that kind of things.
>> When you can use an avatar remotely, from a distance, there are tons of possibilities.
>> But when we ran some tests, we realised it was too soon, people thought it was cool, but they were not ready to have such a huge robot walking around freely in their homes!
>> And so we thought it would be wiser to make a first step with something smaller.
>> So we carried out some studies and it appeared that people are ok to have robots around, as long as they are small and cute!
>> And one of our targets was the seniors, because I’ve worked for quiet a long time in the silver economy industry, which is the business around home care for seniors.
>> So we thought it was a good way to start, as we’ve run lots of tests with seniors at the begining.
>> And the funny thing is that you can be whether 7 or 77 years old, you can love or hate robots.
>> It has nothing to do with your age. A lot of seniors want to have a robot, while youngers would say “I hate robots, they’re scary”!
>> So following these studies, we came with a robot which fulfill people’s expectations, in terms of size.
>> We’ve worked really hard on the acceptability.
>> Because people might want a robot, but if tomorrow a robot comes to your home and offers you thing to do, we want you to want to interact with it.
>> And so it’s about creating an emotional connection between a machine - a piece plastic, ultimately - and a human being.
>> So in the end, the most of the job was to come with something easy to build, because it mustn’t be too expensive,
>> but that can generate this empathy and emotional connection, which we think is the first step and key to success,
>> but then also to be sure that people want to interact with the robot, and that they’ll keep doing it.
>> BUDDY is a small robot that will soon enter our homes, at an affordable price.
>> With his wheels he can move easier than a human and will be able to assist you all through the day.
>> From the morning, he can wake you smoothly and read your agenda. He can watch your house and even control your smart devices.
>> But the funniest thing is that he can take weird picture of you, and is always ready to play hide and seek!
>> Let’s discover for example how he can be used as a medication reminder.
>> Show me the medication.
>> It’s paracetamol. Would you like to get more information on it?
>> Yes!
>> Symptomatic treatment of mild to moderate pain intensity or fever.
>> One of BUDDY’s key points will be his ease of programming.
>> Because even if one needs to know Unity, C sharp, Python or C++, a simple on-screen interface will allow children to build programs easily.
>> There’s an app for kids, so BUDDY can play with them and teach them stuff. We are currently running tests in schools.
>> We have some very simple apps for young children.
>> You can create your own apps, give the robot some directions.
>> We are testing this in school, the idea being that children starting 4 years old can acquire basic programing skills, because you know, it’s BUDDY, he’s funny and they want to do things with him.
>> And then we are going to give them short scripts : you want the robot to go to a given location,
>> or there’s a grid on the floor and kids have to follow numbers from 1 to 10,
>> so they have to program commands like “move forward, turn left” and so on. And also project themselves into a 3D space.
>> So that’s for a really simple programing sequence, with no conditions, there’s nothing complicated here.
>> But the idea is that tomorrow - well, you know programing, but there’s a lot of people who don’t, and we want them to program their own applications.
>> Let’s say you’re cooking, hot plates are turned on, you’ll be able to call BUDDY and ask him to watch for the children.
>> You will tell him “If my kids come close to the hot plates, do warn them to stay away and send me a message”, so you can be sure they’re not doing something dangerous.
>> Ok!
>> If you like this lovely R2-D2’s little brother and want him for Christmas, check the website : adoptbuddy.com/en
>> So that’s it for BUDDY! I hope you liked him!
>> I’m gonna see if I can take him with me...I might make a deal! Bye and see you soon!
