AIBO

Description
AIBO (Artificial Intelligence roBOt) is a series of robotic pets designed and manufactured by Sony. The first AIBO prototype robot was released in 1998. The first consumer model was introduced on May 11, 1999. New models were released every year until 2005. On January 26, 2006 Sony announced that it would discontinue AIBO and several other products in an effort to make the company profitable.

AIBOs were marketed for domestic use as "Entertainment Robots". Despite this, they were also widely adopted by universities and institutions for research and educational purposes including research into robotics and human-robot interaction.

Sony's AIBO is no longer in production but both new and used models can be found on various websites like eBay or Amazon for a variety of prices ranging from €2,000 - €4,000 EUR.

The Science Bit
A study was completed by Stanton et al., 2008 that investigated whether a robotic dog might aid in the social development of children with autism. Eleven children diagnosed with autism (ages 5-8) interacted with AIBO and a simple mechanical toy dog called Kasha. Kasha had no ability to detect or respond to its physical or social environment. Results showed that, in comparison to Kasha, the children spoke more words to AIBO, and more often engaged in three types of behavior with AIBO typical of children without autism: verbal engagement, reciprocal interaction, and authentic interaction.

The study also suggested that while the children were interacting with AIBO, they engaged in fewer autistic behaviors. Given the success in the autism literature of animal-assisted therapy it may be the case that the animal form is a particularly good one for use with autistic children. The differing success rates between Kasha and AIBO also suggest that the interactive nature of AIBO paired with it's dog-form may be the key to it's success with autistic children.