[robocup-legged] Future of the Legged League

[Peter Stone]

Dear Legged League teams,

As you know, the recent announcement by Sony to discontinue the Aibos
will make it difficult for this league to continue indefinitely.
However, recognizing the importance of this league from a research
perspective and also that there is no comparable standardized platform
currently available, the RoboCup Federation is committed to trying to
keep the league running for as long as possible.

In particular, we intend to run the league as long as there are enough
teams willing and able to participate.  There are no guarantees on how
long that will be.  But the current expectation is that that will be
at least until 2008 - hopefully longer.

We are now in direct contact with Sony about how to maximize the
possibility of keeping Aibos available to RoboCup teams.  The most
important thing is that if you are able to purchase Aibos now, you
should send your orders in right away.  Buying directly from Sony
before the end of March will be the easiest course of action.

We are also trying to find a company that will purchase some Aibos
from Sony and then resell them to RoboCup teams over the next few
years.  Because of the financial risks assumed by that company, it's
likely that the Aibos will cost at least a little bit more if you have
to buy them after March.  The technical committee will send you a
message with further details on this, in particular asking you to
estimate (and possibly pre-order) how many Aibos you will want to
purchase in 2007 and in 2008.

Based on this, we look forward to continued great competitions and
research advances from the four-legged league over the next few years!

Best Regards,
     
     Peter Stone and Daniele Nardi
     For the RoboCup Board of Trustees