Announcement at Press Conference Held in Las Vegas
Demonstrated at First Look Event the Day Before... Reappeared the Next Day
Cheers and Applause from Over 1,300 Attendees
Yellow Ball Shape... Learns and Evolves User Patterns
Samsung Electronics will launch the AI companion 'Bolly' in the first half of this year.
Samsung Electronics announced this at a press conference held on the 6th (local time) at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, USA, a day before the opening of the world's largest home appliance and information technology (IT) exhibition, 'CES 2025.'
Samsung Electronics first revealed the concept of Bolly, a wearable walking-assist robot called 'GEMS,' and a companion robot that follows users like a dog and executes commands at CES 2020. Four years later, at last year's CES press conference, Bolly was unveiled as a surprise. Bolly was demonstrated at the 'Samsung Electronics First Look' event held the day before at Caesars Palace Hotel, capturing the attention of attendees, and appeared again on screen that day to announce its launch. The approximately 1,300 global media and business partners attending the event cheered and applauded in unison.
Bolly, shaped like a yellow ball, is an AI robot that continuously learns and evolves based on the user's patterns. Bolly controls various Internet of Things (IoT) devices and monitors children and pets. It can monitor children or pets outside the field of view and notify the user if any abnormal situation occurs, taking necessary actions. It also acts as a home training mate or an auxiliary screen during remote work, assisting with various activities inside the home as a kind of 'butler robot.' Through autonomous driving, it comes when called by the user and executes voice commands without a separate controller.
At last year's CES, Bolly attracted attention by demonstrating how it called a nearby flower shop to remind the homeowner not to forget their wedding anniversary when asked about the schedule and displayed cooking recipe videos on the kitchen wall.
Bolly is equipped with a projector based on dual-lens technology, the world's first capable of both long- and short-distance projection, allowing it to switch lenses to provide optimal screens on walls, ceilings, or floors, enabling users to view necessary information or video content anywhere.
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics has identified robots as one of its core future growth businesses and continues to invest. Recently, it increased its stake in the robot specialist company Rainbow Robotics from 14.71% to 35.0%, becoming the largest shareholder. It also established the Future Robot Promotion Team directly under the CEO. Based on this, it is expected to accelerate the development of intelligent advanced humanoids by combining its AI and software technologies with Rainbow Robotics' robot technology. The Korea Machine Tool Industry Association projected that the global robot market size, which was $33.2 billion in 2021, will reach $74.1 billion (approximately 103 trillion KRW) by 2026.
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