AIBO ERS-7
AIBO ERS-7s at the RoboCup Standard Platform League.
ManufacturerSony
Year of creation2003
Derived fromERS-210/220 and ERS-31X
Replaced byERS-1000
Websitewww.sony.jp/products/Consumer/aibo/index2.html

The AIBO ERS-7 is an entertainment robot created for the commercial market. Initially released in 2003, it was the first AIBO installment to be explicitly referred to as a dog[1] and saw adoption in both research and popular culture. It was the last robot developed before the dissolution of Sony's robotics division[2] in 2006 and the eventual release of the ERS-1000 in 2018.[3]

Hardware

The first and only 3rd generation AIBO, the ERS-7 was intended to be the culmination of the product's development to that point. The robot was designed to evoke the theme of 'clean and clear' and implemented an array of LEDs called 'Illume-face', as well as capacitive touch sensors, for the expression of emotion and numeric information.[4][5]

Specifications

Technical specifications[6]
CPU 64-bit RISC processor
RAM 64MB
Camera 350,000-pixel CMOS image sensor
Sensors 2 infrared distance sensors (head: 1, chest: 2)
2 capacitive touch sensors (head: 1, back: 1)
Pressure sensor (chin)
4 button sensors (paws)
Vibration sensor
Acceleration sensor
Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11b/IEEE 802.11
2.4 GHz WEP connections
Degrees of Freedom 20
(head: 3, leg: 3x4, ear: 1x2, tail: 2, mouth: 1)
Height 180 millimetres (7.1 in)
Width 278 millimetres (10.9 in)
Depth 319 millimetres (12.6 in)
Weight 1.6 kilograms (3.5 lb) including battery pack and Memory Stick

Hardware revisions

A Champagne Brown ERS-7 charging, positioned next to an AIBOne and AIBO cards.
An ERS-7M3/T and accessories.
Model number Color Product
discontinuation
month 		Service
termination
date[7]
ERS-7 /W Pearl White Sep 2004 Sep 2011
ERS-7M2 /W Pearl White Sep 2005 Sep 2012
ERS-7M2 /B Pearl Black
ERS-7M3 /W Pearl White Mar 2006 Mar 2013
ERS-7M3 /B Pearl Black
ERS-7M3 /T Champagne/Honey Brown

The ERS-7 underwent multiple revisions, beginning with the ERS-7M2 in 2004 and followed by the ERS-7M3 in 2005. Every release added an additional available color to the product catalogue and shipped with an updated version of the 'MIND' software.[8][9]

Software

The ERS-7 used an updated version of Sony's Aperios operating system and OPEN-R application layer[10] present in each AIBO release. Sony distributed the OPEN-R SDK, AIBO Remote Framework, and AIBO Motion Editor[11] for the noncommercial creation of software and published an updated version of the R-CODE scripting language for both commercial and consumer applications.[12]

MIND

The official software for the ERS-7 existed as a single personality called MIND that received incremental upgrades and service pack updates. This differentiated it from its predecessors, particularly the ERS-210 that offered unique features, such as teleoperation and a virtual pet-like 'life cycle' in separate software packages.[13] MIND was capable of self-charging, recognizing unique faces, and remembering names. Pattern recognition used in targeting the charging station and recognizing AIBO cards was derived from technology developed by Evolution Robotics.[6] Two pieces of PC software were distributed with the initial MIND release, including the WLAN Manager that allowed the user to input network information to interact with AIBO wirelessly and the Custom Manager that enabled the installation of new games and dances distributed as 'custom data packs' on Sony's official website.

MIND 2

MIND 2 expanded the original MIND with the ability to recognize favorite objects, monitor a house, and communicate with other robots. It retained the tonal sounds of MIND 1 and introduced the AIBO Entertainment Player, a PC software that allowed the user to control the robot from a computer, take pictures and record videos, announce calendar items, and stream internet radio.[14]

MIND 3

MIND 3 enabled AIBO to talk in English and Japanese by manner of pre-recorded voice lines, a feature that could be disabled in favor of tonal beeps. It was capable of short-term memory recall[15] and expanded the functionality of the Custom Manager by allowing the user to modify installed data through the robot's 'voice guide mode' menu.[6]

  • The MIND 3 memory stick.
    The MIND 3 memory stick.
  • The AIBO WLAN Manager interface.
    The AIBO WLAN Manager interface.
  • The AIBO Custom Manager interface.
    The AIBO Custom Manager interface.
  • The main AIBO Entertainment Player interface, with navigation selected.
    The main AIBO Entertainment Player interface, with navigation selected.

Research

The ERS-7 was widely utilized in academic research. Notably, the platform was the robot selected for the RoboCup Standard Platform League from 2004 to 2008.[16] Some research topics included wireless control and simulation,[17] autonomous learning,[18] and visual[19] processing.

In popular culture

In the 2006 comedy film Click, starring Adam Sandler, the ERS-7 is briefly featured before being run over by the main character's car.[20]

In September 2003, Sony was awarded the Good Design Award in Product Design for the ERS-7.[21]

American artist Stephen Huneck collaborated with Sony for AIBO's 5th anniversary, creating prints featuring both the ERS-7 and Huneck's dog Sally.[4]

References

  1. ^ "Surprise! Sony's AIBO Is a Dog". PCMAG.
  2. ^ "Why did Sony kill off its Aibo robot dog?". the Guardian. February 2, 2006.
  3. ^ "Sony's beloved robotic dog is back with a new bag of tricks". NBC News.
  4. ^ a b "AIBO Official Site [AIBOの歴史や魅力を知る]". www.sony.jp.
  5. ^ "Sony teaches Aibo new tricks". CNET.
  6. ^ a b c Manual Sony.com
  7. ^ "Sony AIBO Europe - Official Website - Model-by-model breakdown". May 6, 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-05-06.
  8. ^ staff, CNET News. "New Aibo is a dancing fool". CNET.
  9. ^ "Sientate! Sony's Latest AIBO Entertainment Robot Understands Spanish". www.sony.com.
  10. ^ "||| AIBO SDE Homepage |||||| AIBO SDE Homepage |||". August 28, 2005. Archived from the original on 2005-08-28.
  11. ^ "||| AIBO SDE Homepage |||". September 1, 2005. Archived from the original on 2005-09-01.
  12. ^ "||| AIBO SDE Homepage |||||| AIBO SDE Homepage |||". November 20, 2005. Archived from the original on 2005-11-20.
  13. ^ "AIBO Official Site [製品情報]". www.sony.jp.
  14. ^ Manuals Sony.com
  15. ^ Fujita, M.; Kuroki, Y.; Ishida, T.; Doi, T. T. (October 2003). "Autonomous Behavior Control Architecture of Entertainment Humanoid Robot SDR-4X". Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453). Vol. 1. pp. 960–967. doi:10.1109/iros.2003.1250752. ISBN 0-7803-7860-1. S2CID 27672341.
  16. ^ "Robots compete in football league". May 11, 2005 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  17. ^ Hohl, L.; Tellez, R.; Michel, O.; Ijspeert, A. J. (February 2006). "Aibo and Webots: Simulation, wireless remote control and controller transfer. Robotics and Autonomous Systems" (PDF). Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 54 (6): 472–485. doi:10.1016/j.robot.2006.02.006.
  18. ^ Lakemeyer, G.; Sklar, E.; Sorrenti, D. G; Takahashi, T. (2006). "Autonomous Learning of Stable Quadruped Locomotion". RoboCup 2006: Robot Soccer World Cup X. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 4434. pp. 98–109. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-74024-7_9. ISBN 978-3-540-74023-0.
  19. ^ Fidelman, Peggy; Stone, Peter (2004). "Learning Ball Acruisition on a Physical Robot" (PDF). ((cite journal)): Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  20. ^ Frank Coraci (Director) (June 25, 2006). Click (Motion picture). ISBN 978-1557837295.
  21. ^ "Entertainment Robot [AIBO ERS-7]". Good Design Award.
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