BUDDY | pet companion

What it does

BUDDY is a pet robot designed to address the work-life imbalancebetween young professionals and theircats. lt enables remote sound cues andtreat rewards to engage cats during theday, improving pet well-being and co-living quality.

Your inspiration

Inspiration stemmed from the disruptive phenomenon of cats "parkouring" at home during the night. This highlights how inverted human-feline sleep cycles severely impact urban young pet owners' night rest, contradicting their pursuit of quality life. The root cause lies in insufficient daytime interaction, leading to feline hyperactivity. Therefore, we enable owners to remotely play with their pets using reward-based interactions, effectively addressing the lack of daytime companionship. By aligning with shared rhythms in human-cat routines, we aim to bridge the interaction timing gap, amplify shared joy,and integrate solutions into daily life

How it works

Firstly, BUDDY achieves personalised interaction through built-in sensors and AI learning technology: the system continuously captures the cat's jumping, chasing and other behaviours, analyses its unique interest patterns and dynamically adjusts BUDDY's movement trajectory to stimulate the desire to play. Secondly, it adopts dual-mode drive: users can remotely check the cat's status and real-time control the movement of the device through mobile APP; when the owner has no time to intervene, the autonomous mode automatically triggers the game based on the results of the AI analysis, and makes use of fragmented short rounds (2-5 minutes each time) to consume the cat's energy in a high-frequency manner. Finally, it relies on the closed-loop operation of environment perception and safety design: infrared and dynamic sensors scan for obstacles (furniture/people/pets) in real time, triggering emergency stops or steering to avoid collision.

Design process

We start from the background research of the project, and start from the problem of incompatibility between human and cat's work and rest, and explore the reasons for the decline in the quality of life of human and cat. Locking the cat-keeping crowd and cats as user objects, through in-depth desktop, market and field research, comparing the behavioural trajectories and behavioural preferences of humans and cats, and finally taking the form of human-cat intelligent game interaction as an innovative point to achieve the scientific energy consumption of cats. Scientific and interesting game play becomes a major difficulty, we carry out comparative experimental exploration of the source of attraction of cats and human-cat interactive game play, and then integrate the results into game design and product design, and the combination of hardware and software functions and logic. After completing the next product modelling and rendering, we will print the prototype and integrate it with the technology to carry out the real human-cat game test, to provide data support for the subsequent optimisation and adjustment, and to reach the verification of the purpose of harmonious life between humans and cats.

How it is different

1.Innovative interactive mode: BUDDY subverts the monotony of traditional pet toys by introducing the interactive concept of ‘cat and mouse’, placing the pet owner in the role of ‘prey’ and creating challenging and interesting interactive scenarios. 2. Precise energy management: Unlike other products that simply provide entertainment, BUDDY captures and analyses the cat's behavioural patterns through AI learning technology to achieve a personalised energy consumption plan. 3. Highly customisable experience: BUDDY is highly customisable. Through the mobile app, pet owners can adjust the difficulty and mode of the game according to the cat's interest and stamina level, and even turn on the free mode to allow the cat to explore on its own. 4. Eco-friendly materials: Made from wheat straw, BUDDY is not only safe and non-toxic, but also has a unique fibre texture that caters to cats' tactile preferences.

Future plans

1. Intelligent upgrade and deep learning: BUDDY will continue to deepen the AI learning algorithms to more accurately understand and predict cat's behavioural patterns, and enhance the realism and fun of interaction. 2. Expanded ecosystem and community building: We will be committed to building a pet ecosystem around BUDDY, including an online community, a professional veterinarian consulting platform, and a pet supplies mall. 3. Material innovation and environmental protection mission: we will continue to explore more environmentally friendly and sustainable new materials in the choice of materials.

Awards

2023 UXDA 15th International UX Innovation Competition- National 3rd Prize & Hisense Proposition National 2nd Prize  2024 G-CROSS AWARD- Bronze Award