[robocup-legged] Future of the Legged League

[Andrew Williams]

Hi Peter,
I had someone from our purchasing department contact Sony today
regarding the status of our order we placed on Feb 6 (on the Monday
following Friday the 3rd) after we got the quote of Feb 3 and we were
told today that they can not complete the order and that they had run
out of them over the weekend of the 3rd.  We never received a call
from them on the 6th when we placed the order.  We are looking for any
color AIBO for our NSF BPC project.  We have enough for RoboCup but
not enough for our educational project and it is critical that we find
some ERS-7s.

Are there actually any AIBO's available anywhere that you know of?

Cheers,

-- Andrew

On 2/14/06, Peter Stone <pstone at cs.utexas.edu> wrote:
>
> 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
> > >
>
>