We would like to share our latest news with you.

First of all, the Blue Frog Robotics team and our BUDDY robots wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR 2019, filled with health, happiness, and success.

We’re happy to confirm that everything is currently moving forward as planned as per our last announcement.

The first pre-production of BUDDY has finally arrived and landed at our office!

So, we very much welcome this new step taken!

As you recall, we launched the pre-production series in a small quantity to do the necessary settings before launching the mass production and which also allowed us to test with our manufacturer partner the production processes.

Now, the actual manufactured pre-production coming off the line needs to be tested in real conditions with end-users as announced previously.

Therefore, we have started to deliver our first partners. We’re so excited to see this first pre-production in their hands to conduct experimentations.

Already 5 corporate partners have signed to start full-scale tests with BUDDY.

Among them, the European leader in Ageing Well, KORIAN, who will start on February an experimentation with elderly, based on the unique capabilities of BUDDY to provide permanent assistance for both health caregiver and senior (safety / security, 24H monitoring service, alert generation, social link, entertainment etc.). BUDDY will constantly patrol and check if there is a break in the routine.

We have also another project on development with a global healthcare player to experiment BUDDY on Children with Special Needs.

Last but not least, we have started the first training sessions of our integrators’ partners on our SDK PRO and our branded new personalized support portal. That will allow them to create fabulous applications and services by using the different skills of BUDDY in specific use cases.

In one day, our partners could successfully develop their first application. It gave us confidence that our new SDK is powerful and easy to use, after all the hard work and the long hours our team has been putting into its development as well as into the production of associated documentation and support tool.

Here are some examples of what we have been working on since our last update:

• We continued to advance on the perception technology. We have completed the integration of a new module, "skeleton", so that BUDDY can capture full body motion which can be useful for different usages and/or to offer sport and entertainment applications such as coaching exercises for seniors or games for kids.

• We have finalized a first version of the "BUDDY LAB" application which allows to program BUDDY in a fun, easy and intuitive way. This application in its current version makes it possible to play sequences of actions on BUDDY, for example a movement, a head motion, a change of expression, integrating conditions (noise, obstacle, motion, card (colors, animals, figures)) to easily create simple applications, games or workshops on BUDDY.

As part of our experimentations, we will also test this application with professionals in education field and young children, including children with autism.

At the end, BUDDY LAB is a visual programming language, simple and intuitive. Our ultimate goal is to make BUDDY accessible to everyone. Eventually, this application will allow any user to create and run scenarios on BUDDY according to their own needs and desires.
You'll be able to do a lot of things without the need for programming skills to use it. For example :

"If you were cooking and your oven is still hot and your children are too close to it, BUDDY can detect them, come in front of them and alert them vocally, then eventually send you an SMS alert or call you."
It's up to you to decide how BUDDY will react in all kind of situations in just a few simple steps.

• We have also worked on the test tools for the production line. This “Diagnostic” application allows to test all the functionalities of the robot (audio, leds, motors, sensors, cameras, thermal matrix...)

• We have released a first beta of our "Meta-OS" on the pre-production robots, integrating all the emotional AI of BUDDY, the building blocks of autonomous perception, interaction and navigation as well as the dynamic management of applications in a secure way.

BUDDY won a “Blue Ocean Award“, which rewards companies that create new markets with their innovative product or service.

Co-organized since 2014 by HEC Paris, AXESSIO Innovation Strategy Practice and the Directorate General for Enterprises (DGE) of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Blue Ocean Awards reward and highlight the French companies that create new markets, in line with the “Blue Ocean” strategy.

19 finalists were selected among 400 nominations. 9 of the 19 finalists were rewarded for their so-called “divergent” offer.

BUDDY was awarded in the BABY category startup as rethinking the home care of seniors and dependent people.

We were proud that this prestigious competition recognizes our BUDDY robot as an innovative product to help elderly to stay at home safely, while strengthening the social bond.

Thank you for being a part of our incredible journey to bring BUDDY to life. Your faith in our product and in our team inspire us every day.

Again, without you, nothing would have been possible, thank you.

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