Buddy the robot protector looks like R2-D2's first cousin

Hey guys. My name is Stephen Beacham for Crave and I'm here with Buddy, the first social robot personal assistant from Blue Frog Robotics. Also joining me is Rodolphe Hasselvander, the CEO for Blue Frog Robotics. Thanks for coming by, Rodolphe. He's going to answer some questions about Buddy and give us a demo of the robot. So Buddy is an open source robot powered by Unity3D and Android software. But it also is a free range robot, so it can walk around your house. So, tell us how you got the idea to build Buddy, and what sorts of things can it do for you? I manage a well known research laboratory in robotics for professional applications like nuclear and defense and that kind of thing and in assistance. Two years ago we decided we wanted to transfer all this high technology into a real affordable robot. So we have created a first prototype and we have tested this prototype with a lot of people and last year I created Blue Frog Robotics to launch the robot. The Buddy is for family, children, and seniors. And as an example, it can watch your house when you are not there. It can patrol autonomously and detect fire, burglar, and flood. It can send you an alert on your smartphone. And when you receive this alert, you can take control of the robot at distance, like telepresence. And when you receive this alert you can take control of the robot at distance like telepresence. And you can see through the robot and check if there is a real problem. It can control your smarthome. It can play music. And it can help you in your daily life. So, Buddy is a modular robot, so you can put different attachments on the robot for different needs So what types of attachments are available for the robot now? We have developed accessories like arms, and one of them is an arm with a pico projector. So we can project onto the floor, on the wall or everywhere you want. It's an open platform, so we have developed some of the accessories. But we hope that the community will develop their own accessories. Has anyone designed a modular attachment for Buddy that you The main thing we've seen is like specific arms able to play with your dog. Able to catch ball and hand the ball and move around with the dog and play with the [Man 1] with the doggies, it's funny. [Man 2] Are you cool to be answering some really rapid fire questions? [Man 1] I'll try. [Man 2] Okay, so many buddies do you have in the house? [Man 1] One. [Man 2] Have you ever been annoyed by buddy and kicked him over? [Man 1] Yes [Man 2] Does Buddy ever swear occasionally? [Man 1] Yeah. Yeah. [Man 2] Who'd win in a fight, Buddy or Wall-E from Pixar? And do you ever get nervous getting undressed in front of Buddy? What? [LAUGH] We have the camera on him. All of us were wondering, he was a camera on him, so would you get nervous with the camera on you? Me? Yeah. Yeah. OK. When can you expect Buddy to be on the market and how much is it going to start in terms of price? So in the Indiegogo campaign, the price is $649. And the final retail price for the end of the next year will be $749. $749. Okay. Cool. And when can we expect to see that. You were saying end of next year? Yeah for a quick moment. Christmas time next year? > >Yeah. Christmas time next year Buddy in your house, under your tree. All right so this is Buddy, the personal assistant robot. You can check it out indiegogo.com. Thanks for watching. Thanks, Buddy. Oh yes I love go for a walk. [LAUGH] [NOISE] [BLANK_AUDIO]