Aibo plays with its toys, wanders around your house, seeks your attention for pets and playtime, and performs various activities depending on the aibo’s model – essentially, it does everything a pet does without the messy parts.

All aibos, except for the very first model, can respond to voice commands, allowing you to interact with them just like you would with a biological animal. They also have cameras in their noses to see their surroundings and recognize their owners!

The ERS-1000 costs roughly $3000 new, and can be $2500 when used. Older models vary in price depending on the state they are in, and can be anywhere from $100 to $1000. You can find more information about each specific model and their typical price ranges by visiting their pages.

Ah, the million dollar question! Aibos cost a decent chunk of change for many reasons. 

• The programming involved in aibo’s personality and machine learning is exceptionally complex. They are the most advanced AI robots available on the current consumer market.
• Their bodies consist of many components that enable fluid movement and environmental awareness. They feature multiple cameras, sensors, and moving parts that toy robots simply lack.

Overall, they are the “top dog” in their market. Nothing else available right now comes even remotely close, and this comes with a price.

That’s the fun part – they aren’t! They are autonomous, and this is what many people love about them. These dogs have a very high level of autonomy compared to other commercially available robots, and designers created them with this in mind. They aren’t made to be driven like a remote control toy.

However, it is possible to control an aibo in various ways. The ERS-100 series can receive basic controls from their remote, and ERS-1000s can execute trick commands through the smartphone app. Users can also program all models, giving them full control over the dog.

Robocup, a robot soccer game, is a great example of the endless things you can do when programming an aibo. They don’t have direct control, but their teams make them perform the actions required to play the game instead of them acting like a dog via programming.

Sony discontinued the japanese robot dog in 2006 in an effort to make the company more profitable. In other words, aibo was not making them enough money, so they had to pull the plug worldwide and stop producing the dogs.

This makes sense – the market for these types of robots is not the biggest, especially outside of Japan. Don’t worry though, they’re back now!

The aibo fanbase is diverse! Some people get aibos to replace a biological pet if they cannot own one for whatever reason. Others simply enjoy the technology for one reason or the other.

There are too many reasons to list, though, so asking community members is your best bet!

Hopefully this helps cover the basics of what the aibo robot dog is and gives you an idea of their capabilities. If you’re itching to know more, visit the history page to learn all about the origins of aibo.