AIBO ERS-110

A robot that decides for itself

On 11 May 1999 Sony announced the ERS-110, the first-generation AIBO. The launch release describes it as an autonomous robot that acts both in response to external stimuli and according to its own judgement^[1]. Sony's history of the product goes further, crediting the machine with creating the previously nonexistent category of entertainment robot^[2], and the company's product milestones list the 1999 ERS-110 as the first-generation four-legged autonomous entertainment robot, capable of learning and expressing emotions^[3].

Those descriptions point at the same idea. This was not a remote-controlled toy that only did what its owner pressed, but a machine built to generate behaviour of its own, and to change that behaviour over time.

Eighteen joints and a card for what it learns

The body had 18 degrees of freedom: one for the mouth, two for the tail, three for the head and three for each of the four legs^[1]. A degree of freedom here is a single independently driven axis of motion, so the count is a rough measure of how many separate movements the machine can make. The leg joints are what allow smooth four-legged walking^[1]; the head and tail joints are not needed for walking at all, and give the robot something to move with when it is expressing itself.

The learning rested on artificial intelligence technology that shapes behaviour through repeated communication with the user and interaction with the environment^[1]. That is a different arrangement from a fixed program: nothing in advance decides every reaction, and repeated contact with a person and with the surroundings gradually changes how the robot acts. Sony said the robot could express various emotions, grow through learning and communicate with human beings^[1].

What it learned did not disappear when it was switched off. The robot came with a pre-recorded 8MB Memory Stick, used to store software modules and data generated during learning^[1]. The same storage medium held both the programs and the record of experience, so the machine's history had a physical place to live.

A partner, a voice, a sulk

The name comes from Japanese: BBC notes that Aibo means partner^[4]. The same report says the robot could bark, talk and sing in English or Japanese^[4].

BBC also described how praise and punishment worked in practice. An owner could praise the robot by touching its head for more than two seconds, while a sharp slap was interpreted as punishment and put it into a sulk^[4]. This is the "repeated communication" of the launch release made visible: a touch becomes a signal, and the machine's mood is the result the owner can see.

Where it sits

The ERS-110 is remembered as the start of a line rather than a one-off machine. Sony's milestones page lists it as the first-generation model^[3], and the product history treats the entertainment robot category as something this machine brought into existence^[2]. Its importance lies in the combination it put in one body: four-legged locomotion, behaviour shaped over time by the person who lives with it, and a stated purpose of companionship and entertainment rather than of doing work.