Buddy Be Well
The happy empathic robot assistant for lifestyle tips to stay healthy
A project with purpose
As the population is ageing rapidly, it is important to find ways to assist healthy ageing. There are many of these negative (mental) health effects that can be reduced with lifestyle interventions that promote an active, positive, and social life. Social robotics could be the key to deliver such interventions effectively. The evidence from recent literature reviews regarding the impact of social robotics for elderly people in relation to psychological wellbeing is encouraging. However, still a lot of progress needs to be made to develop a truly empathic robot. The goal of this project is to provide older users (and their caregivers) with a robotic companion running the latest AI technology. The robot will be delivering advice for a healthy lifestyle in a personalized way. This will help lift their spirits and make doing a healthy activity more fun. So that ultimately older people can stay healthier and stay at home longer.
A truly empathic companion
For this project, we will turn Buddy the emotional robot into an empathic robot. In order to do this it is important that Buddy can truly understand the emotion and motivation of the user, to structure the interactions accordingly. The main result of the project will be an enhanced Buddy robot with stronger hardware and improved functionalities, embedded with FaceReader multimodal emotion and physiological assessment, monitoring health related indices and delivering just-in-time adaptive lifestyle interventions based on behavior change theory, implemented in a 24h support platform. The market of personal robots is increasing but there currently is not a robot on the market that integrates complex emotional interactions and can really be a companion in someone’s home.
Latest updates
All updates
Consortium meeting in Paris
We had another fruitful physical meeting, this time at the office of Blue Frog Robotics in Paris. Buddy was again the star of the meeting and showed off all the tricks it had learned in each country. This was a great moment to integrate and discuss the crucial functionalities for the validation study that will …
Buddy at VivaTech event in Paris
From June 11th to 14th, VivaTech, one of the most renowned events in the field of new technologies, took place in Paris. Vivatech is one of Europe’s largest technology and innovation fairs, bringing together startups, tech companies, investors, and innovators to showcase cutting-edge products and ideas. Blue Frog Robotics was present at the event with Buddy the robot. …
Interview with Salzburg Research
Salzburg Research was interviewed by the Kronen Zeitung about the “groundbreaking” Buddy. The “ideal companion for the elderly”. Read the full article (in German) here.