History of the rUNSWift AIBOs

The first generation AIBO ERS-110 was released in Japan and US in 1999. The release caused a frenzy and the production of 3,000 AIBOs for Japan were sold out in a mere 20 minutes over the Internet and the 2,000 in the US were all gone in four days.

UNSW was lucky that Sony supplied the AIBO's for the first year and was able to enter with the ERS-110's. Since then we have kept up to date with the latest models through the ERS-210's, 210 SuperCores, right through to the ERS-7s. It is now a major cost in our rUNSWift (UNSW/NICTA) Robocup budget.

The amount of research we do with them has them running many more hours per year than Sony's design as an entertainment robot allow - steadily the parts wear out and break. We have boxes of broken legs, cores and heads! We have at times been asked if we could sell or donate our old AIBOs, but in reality we have few working ones left.

1999-2000 Robocup AIBO

AIBO ERS-110

• 64-bit RISC processor
• 100MHZ
• 16MB RAM
• 8MB Memory Stick
• camera: 180,000 pixel color CCD camera
• Stereo Microphone, Mono speaker
• Comes with two special Li-Ion Batteries
• 2 LEDs in face

2001-2002 Robocup AIBO

AIBO ERS-210

• 64-bit RISC processor
• 192MHZ
• 32MB RAM
• 8MB Memory Stick
• Camera: 100,000 pixel CMOS 176 x 144 pixels 25 fps
• Stereo microphone and stereo speakers
• One Lithium ion battery
• 4 LEDs in face, 2 in tail
• 802.11b wireless ethernet (add-on)
• 1 IR distance sensor

2003 Robocup AIBO

AIBO ERS-210A SuperCore

• Same except 384MHz

2004 Robocup AIBO

ERS-7 Model

• 64-bit RISC processor
• 576MHz MIPS R7000
• 64MB RAM
• 32MB Memory Stick
• 300,000-pixel digital camera 640 x 480 pixel 30fps
• Stereo microphone and stereo speakers
• One Lithium ion battery
• 24 LEDs in face (45 total)
• 802.11b wireless ethernet (standard)
• 3 IR distance sensors
• understands and responds to 100+ words and phrases
• Recognizes owner's face and voice