[robocup-legged] Future of the Legged League

[Peter Stone]

Andrew,

It is up to the TC whether other colors will be allowed in the
future.  I don't know.

Regarding Betsy's question, this is from Masahiro:

> The memory stick and the battery are available for a while.
> After a while, you can purchase them as service parts.

Cheers,
	Peter




> Hi Peter,
> We have placed an order for additional robots so that we will have
> enough for the 11x11 demo matches (we already have 8).  We would be
> glad to inform the committee on our pre-orders for future years since
> we are now using the AIBOs for an educational research project funded
> by NSF.
> 
> Do you think other color AIBO's (brown and black) could be used in
> future RoboCup competitions since there may be more of those in stock
> than just the white ones?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> -- Andrew
> The SpelBots
> 
> On 2/13/06, Peter Stone <pstone at cs.utexas.edu> wrote:
> >
> > 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
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > robocup-legged mailing list
> > robocup-legged at cc.gatech.edu
> > https://mailman.cc.gatech.edu/mailman/listinfo/robocup-legged
> >