Buddy: a French robot that set out for homes and settled in schools

Buddy is a social robot made by France’s Blue Frog Robotics. It began with crowdfunding in 2015, home deliveries slipped for years, and a ministry tender took it into schools.

MakerBlue Frog Robotics (Paris, France)

UnveiledIndiegogo, July 2015. $657,000 from more than 1,000 backers (sources give slightly different totals)

SizeJust over 60 cm tall and about 5 kg (2015 report). A screen face on a wheeled body

DelaysNot shipped to backers by May 2019. In a 2019 interview the expected price was $1,700–2,000

Ministry tenderWon in 2018 (one report says 2020). Contract for 1,750 robots; more than 1,500 deployed in schools

SettingSchools (the TED-i remote-learning programme), specialist education centres, care homes

Now€2,500 per robot plus €480 a year for cloud services in 2026. A larger successor is in development

Ended byNot applicable. Still on sale in 2026. Plans for home sales gave way to schools and institutions.

Official siteBlue Frog Robotics, Buddy ↗

On sale (shifted from homes to schools and institutions)

Timeline

2015.07Indiegogo$657,000
2018Education bid won1,750 units
2019.05Backer delayStill not shipped
2023About 2,000 in useSchools, care homes
2026On sale€2,500, €480 a year

$657,000 in crowdfunding, and deliveries that kept slipping

Buddy is a social robot made by Blue Frog Robotics, founded in Paris in 2014. It has a screen face on a wheeled body and stands just over 60 cm tall. It was presented on Indiegogo in July 2015 as a home robot and raised $657,000 from more than 1,000 backers. A retail price of $749 was announced at the time. Deliveries to backers kept slipping.

The robot went to school instead of home

By May 2019 backers still had no robots. The company’s chief executive wrote to them: “I take responsibility for the frustration this delay is causing you, and I want to make things right.” In an interview the same year the company put the expected price at $1,700–2,000. The turn came with an Education ministry tender. The company says it won the tender in 2018 (one report says 2020). The contract covered 1,750 robots, and more than 1,500 were deployed in schools. Buddy is used in TED-i, a remote-learning programme, alongside other telepresence robots. By 2023 about 2,000 were in use in schools, specialist centres and care homes. In 2026 it costs €2,500 per robot, plus €480 a year for cloud services.

Research with older adults and children

In 2019 researchers at Paris Dauphine met 40 older adults losing their independence, along with their caregivers, to study how Buddy might help in daily life. Salzburg Research in Austria ran a project testing Buddy with about 100 people in Austria, the Netherlands and France. Buddy was also shown with apps for autistic children, but we found no published quantitative results.

The users it found were not the ones it promised

Buddy was promised as a home robot, but it settled in schools. The ministry contract became the core of its sales, and its use narrowed to clear tasks such as remote learning. That path contrasts with Jibo and Kuri, which stayed home robots and disappeared.

Are the people who actually need this product the same people it was planned for?

What we haven’t confirmed

Whether the 2015 Indiegogo backers eventually received robots, and when
The year the ministry tender was won (2018 or 2020, depending on the source)
How many robots were sold outside the ministry contract
The exact weight