ArtiMinds is redefining how we program robots with their intuitive and semi-automatic interface for controlling complex industrial robot tasks , including sensor-adaptive motions. (Germany)

Blue Frog Robotics is the company behind the open-source BUDDY companion robot , whose crowdfunding campaign recently ended with over 6 times their original funding ask. (France)

https://youtu.be/51yGC3iytbY

CleverPet has built a smart dog feeder that lets you play, teach, and connect with your pet all day. (USA)

Erle Robotics creates artificial brains for robots and drones that run on Linux and are based on ROS. (Spain)

GaitTronics is helping patients recover more quickly and with their rehabilitative robot walker , which makes early mobility therapy safe and secure for both patients and caregivers. (Canada)

Mimetics is the company behind the Jade, a fully-developed educational robot designed to engage and excite the next generation of scientists and engineers. (Canada)

Luvozo is developing SAM, a robot-based concierge for senior living communities to supplement staff with non-medical tasks and activities. (USA)

https://youtu.be/7b3dVHYzeR4

Mecademic has built an exceptionally compact and accurate tabletop collaborative robot arm for education and research. (Canada)

https://youtu.be/aKMpMYWniA8

Mobotech is the company behind the Mobot, a light and compact all-electric smart forklift for maneuvering in tight places and preventing workplace injuries. (New Zealand)

https://youtu.be/KSPOKlBv9a4?list=UUCMzA9Kphlgs1jeqH_weRDA

MUSE Robotics enables developers to build custom robots with less time and money using their complete package of plug and play actuators, motor control and sensory modules . (formerly SkyRobotics of Greece; USA)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sXlsH6PaNg

Redtree Hydra lets developers easily connect sensors, actuators, components and other parts to the robot without all the hassle of complicated circuits, specialized hardware or device drivers. (Canada)

Scannable are reinventing LiDAR so that low cost ground and aerial vehicles can avoid obstacles and create precise maps . (USA)

https://youtu.be/y3HL0IcbfPk

The Construct lets developers run simulations in the cloud and share them with colleagues via web interface. (Spain/USA)

Zyro Robot Therapy System is building a personalized robot coach that addresses a variety of educational, social and therapeutic needs. (USA)

PLUS a stealth female-led startup (USA) that we will share with you after the finals!! TBA!!

***

“These are all high quality early stage robotics startups, and that’s about all they have in common!” says competition organizer Andra Keay (Managing Director of Silicon Valley Robotics). “They address all areas of robotics … This an incredibly positive signal for investors and the robotics industry as a whole.”

The finalists will pitch to an audience of investors and robotics entrepreneurs on September 18 at WilmerHale in Palo Alto, CA. The winners will receive around $100,000 in prizes and services tailored specifically for robotics companies, from sponsors that include CSIRO, Siemens, Amazon, WilmerHale, SMBC, iRobot and Robolution Capital.

Judges include Shahin Farshschi (Lux Capital), Rich Mahoney (SRI International), Peter Kambouris (CSIRO), Glenn Luinenburg (WilmerHale), Hanns Anders (iRobot) and Carolin Funk (Siemens).

Providing global reach to local tech clusters

The Robot Launch global startup competition is co-organized by Silicon Valley Robotics, a regional robotics cluster, and Robohub.org, a global robotics research and community news network. Both are not-for-profit organizations supporting innovation in robotics, and together they form a strong bridge between robotics innovation and entrepreneurship.

“Silicon Valley is ideally positioned to connect robotics startups to investors, and the global robotics research community is producing some exciting new business ideas. But while there is now more money flowing towards early stage startups, robotics and hardware entrepreneurs need to be incredibly focused in how they move from prototype to beta customer and business model,” says Keay.

“Robot Launch connects clusters of robotics innovation at the critical early seed stage, and showcases the best new robotics businesses from around the world.”

Meaningful prizes for robotics startups

Robot Launch prizes are geared toward providing real business acceleration for the winners, such as:

A series of regional awards for best US, Canadian, Australian and European startups are geared toward developing local partnerships between tech clusters and mentors who can provide regional business, legal or investment support. For example, the law firms WilmerHale and LaBarge Weinstein will provide the regional US and Canadian winners (respectively) with free legal startup services; the regional Australian winner will get business mentoring from QUTBluebox ; and Robolution Capital will provide pitch coaching to the best European startup. Awards such as these help get more robotics startups onto the global stage while supporting entrepreneurship locally.

Siemens is offering the winning industrial robotics startups membership into their new Frontier Program, which includes access to Siemens’ PLM software suite and mentorship with industrial manufacturing partner companies. Robotics is a new area in the Frontier Program, which was initially only for 3D printing startups. The first robotics startup in the Frontier Program was Clearpath Robotics (Canada), who is also an award sponsor in the Robot Launch competition. Learn more.

Clearpath Robotics  is sponsoring the Robot Launch ROS Award to the startup best using the Robot Operating System. The availability of the open source Robot Operating System ROS has played an important role in speeding up the growth of startups (including Clearpath Robotics), and more than 1/3rd of the Robot Launch startups use ROS in some way. Clearpath will be providing 10 hours of ROS consulting to the winner.

The Olander Company and KRTKL are also providing custom hardware for robotics startups in the finals of Robot Launch, showcasing how even early-stage robotics companies can help each other get to market faster.

The Robohub Readers Pick award celebrates the crowd favorite through online voting. Now that crowdfunding can play a significant role in the pathway for many startups, success in attracting votes here sends a strong signal of support to CEOs and potential investors.

Key Info

The finals will take place online and in person on September 18, 2015 at WilmerHale in Palo Alto, CA. Videos from the event will be available on Robohub, data and time TBA. See Twitter hashtag  #RobotLaunch2015 for details.

***

About Silicon Valley Robotics

Silicon Valley Robotics (SVR) is the not-for-profit organization supporting innovation and commercialization of robotics technologies in Silicon Valley. SVR organizes investor and startup events, networking and a job board for robotics companies, and strategic reports on the robotics ecosystem.

http://svrobo.org

About Robohub

Robohub is a non-profit online communication network for the international robotics community. With over 70K unique visitors each month, Robohub features news and opinion from experts in all facets of robotics, including research, ethics, law, start-ups, business, arts and education.

http://robohub.org/

Follow Robot Launch on Twitter  

#RobotLaunch2015 https://twitter.com/hashtag/RobotLaunch2015

@svrobo https://twitter.com/svrobo

@Robohub https://twitter.com/robohub

The campaign has also unlocked 12 stretch goals including:

• Kids programming environment
• Special Kids pack (i.e Autism)
• Side tray accessory with USB charging
• Expressions pack
• Elder pack
• Hackathon
• Black color
• Memory extension to 32 GB
• Air quality sensing module
• Easypath application to create your own smart applications
• IBM Watson integration

And Blue Frog Robotics has also announced some accessories including:

• Standard motorized arms
• Pico Projector Arm
• Docking station for charging

Developed by the French company Blue Frog Robotics, BUDDY beat his crowdfunding goal ($100,000) in a day, and has been filmed and written about across the world.

BUDDY has a new (second) home

BUDDY enjoyed an enthusiastic welcome on his first visit to the US in August to meet press, investors and fans. He’ll be a regular visitor as Blue Frog Robotics announced the opening of its North American offices in Boston and San Francisco .

Videos

“Buddy is a really, really, ridiculously cute family robot” – Lucas Matney, TechCrunch

“Buddy the robot protector looks like R2-D2’s first cousin” – Stephen Beacham, CNET TV

“With Jibo and now Buddy, Boston is becoming a social-robot mecca”  – David Harris, Boston Business Journal

“Meet Buddy: the Stars Wars-Inspired Robot”< – CRN

“Robot pet-sitters?”  – Scott Kirsner, The Boston Globe

“Buddy robot snubs creator” – Dan Simmons, BBC news

“Buddy the robot is ‘more useful than an iPhone’”
– Anthony Cuthbertson, International Business Times

Articles

“BUDDY, A Crowdfunded Robot And Platform” – Hubert Nguyen – Ubergizmo

“Buddy whisks around on wheels and casters while JIBO, another social robot option, swivels harmlessly on your desk or floor” – Dominic Basulto, The Washington Post

“Buddy marks an advance in the progression of agents from Siri to Amazon Echo, as it moves and interacts proactively” – Ross Rubin, Venture Beat

“Downloading apps on your own personal robot may become as common as downloading apps on your smartphone”  – Cadie Thompson, Business Insider

“Rolling Buddy robot may just kill you with cuteness”  – Lance Ulanoff, Mashable

Rodolphe Hasselvander, creator of BUDDY, says: “We are incredibly overwhelmed and thankful for the love and support BUDDY has received over the past month. The reaction from people is beyond even my wildest of expectations.”

The Robot Launch competition finals will be held on Friday Sept 18 when a selection of great startups will pitch live to an investor panel. Are Robohub readers on the same wavelength as our expert panelists? Let’s see! Here are the most popular startups so far out of the 30 semifinalists as judged by our readers. This week is your final vote for the “Readers’ Pick”. Will it be the same startup as the judges pick in our finals?

Make sure you vote for your favorite Robot Launch startup favorite by 11:59pm EDT, 8 Sep  . Spread the word through social media using #robotlaunch2015, stay tuned for the finals on September 18, and don’t forget to vote below!

First, who were the round three favorites?

Now get voting for the final “Readers Pick”!

Blue Frog Robotics (Buddy) | france (@BlueFrogRobotic)

Bringing you affordable mobile robots like BUDDY that help people live easier, safer and with a little bit of fun.

https://youtu.be/hYKAQLESoV0

Erle Robotics | spain (@ErleRobotics)
At Erle Robotics we build the next generation of artificial robotic brains for robots and drones based in Linux.

GaitTronics has developed SoloWalk, a patient handling robot that helps frail patients get up and walk.

https://youtu.be/sX_CER_iQEU

Luvozo is developing SAM, the world’s first robotic concierge for senior living communities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b3dVHYzeR4

QEYE is coming from Quality eye that develop automatic quality inspection systems based on machine vision technologies and smart industries solutions for textile industry saving time and money and make the quality process more accurate and informative.

Sereneti Kitchen will make food healthier, tastier, and more affordable than ever before by producing robotic appliances for the home kitchen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pMIhTUnNbE

We have developed an automatically guided mobile robotic coach RUFUS for outdoor walking and running.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_aOCYX-kcM

The Construct is the Netflix of robotics simulators. A cloud based hub system that gives access to the best robotics simulators of the world through a single web account.

http://youtu.be/86gebZkSKNk

This project proposes a solution for accurate, low-cost underwater localization. Furthermore, this type of positioning system can contribute to increase the autonomy of underwater vehicles, allowing low cost deployments.

The Zyro Robot Therapy (ZyRopy) System is an assistive robot therapy platform specifically designed for children with motor disabilities.

CAST YOUR VOTE FOR “PEOPLE’S CHOICE”

VOTING CLOSES ON TUESDAY SEPT 8 AT 11:59 PM [EDT]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51yGC3iytbY

Built on open source

The brainchild of Rodolphe Hasselvander (CEO and Co-founder of Blue Frog Robotics, and former Executive Director of the CRIIF (Robotics Lab)), BUDDY is built on an open-source technology platform so that developers can easily collaborate to build hardware and software for it.

BUDDY was purposely built on an open-source technology platform using popular development tools, such as OpenCV and Unity3D, to allow as many developers as possible to build applications for it. BUDDY’s industry standard platform includes the most popular programming languages and the Android mobile operating system.

Specs

BUDDY is 22-inches/56cm tall, 5 kg in weight and with a battery life of 8-10 hours.

He features an Android-based, Intel Atom-based tablet (also the hub for BUDDY’s brains) that sits in a rotatable head and can slide back and forth on his body.

Fully mobile, BUDDY rolls around on three wheels (two large ones in the front and a caster-style wheel in the back) and has a plethora of sensors allowing him to travel, learn and interact with the world around him. He is also equipped with state of the art Artificial Intelligence technology, including face and object detection, recognition and tracking.

The campaign

We have chosen crowdfunding as the route to market for BUDDY as we want to give early adopters the chance to test BUDDY before it hits the mass market. We also want to cultivate a thriving community of developers. We’re keen on working with talented and innovative developers, as they will help us design and augment BUDDY before bringing it to mass market.

• Super Early Bird backers can purchase their own Classic BUDDY from as little as $499*, and Developer Edition BUDDY for $599*. (SOLD OUT)
• Early Bird backers can purchase their own Classic BUDDY from as little as $549*, and Developer Edition BUDDY for $649*.
• After Early Bird, prices will be set at $649* and $749* for Classic BUDDY and Developer Edition BUDDY, respectively.
• BUDDY “Special Needs” Early Bird Pack for $799 uses specialized software and content to help children with autism learn, communicate, and be more autonomous.
• For $849*, backers can purchase the BUDDY Premium Pack, which includes a projector arm and docking station. The accessories are now for sale separately.
• Buy 2 Classic BUDDY’s for $999*.
• VIP option. For $4,999*, design your BUDDY with us to create a totally unique BUDDY, signed and engraved by the whole team. As a VIP, you’ll also receive a dinner in your honour with the CEO & BUDDY team, travel and accommodation to Paris, a BUDDY premium pack and a private demo.
• Academics BUDDY Developer Pack priced at $6,490 includes 12 robots for the price of 10.

*Plus shipping costs of $50 for one BUDDY and $100 for two BUDDYs

Blue Frog Robotics has also just launched a referral program to bring BUDDY to more homes and families. Indiegogo backers can earn $65 credit towards BUDDY’s campaign every time one of their referrals purchases a BUDDY from $549.

The team behind BUDDY

Rodolphe Hasselvander, Co-Founder & CEO – A pioneer in professional and personal service robotics, Rodolphe spent ten years of his career as Executive Director at CRIIF, a robotics research laboratory.

Franck de Visme, Co-Founder & COO – An entrepreneur by nature, Franck co-founded Hanakai, and is the former CEO of both Tetraedge and Earthlings. He is also a skilled mentor for innovative startups (NUMA).

Jean-Michel Mourier, CTO – Jean-Michel is a passionate robotics engineer with expertise in autonomous navigation, vision, electronic architecture and intelligence. Previously, he worked on several high profile robotics projects in both industry and the lab.

Maud Verraes, CMO – Maud is a marketing leader with extensive experience in developing innovative and high-tech products and solutions, including personal robots. Formerly, she worked with NEC.