In an attempt to standardize entertainment robots, Sony will start pushing an open platform architecture based on the Aibo ERS-210 robodog.
Sony's Aibo robodog is the most advanced entertainment robot in mass-production, and the price tag mirrors that fact. The four-legged, dog/cat-shaped crossbreed, now in its 2nd incarnation, is insanely popular among the Japanese, and the fever has spread to other countries as well. Often the personal toy of executives with too much spare time, the latest Aibo, ERS-210, is now becoming the foundation of what Sony hopes will become a standardized platform for entertainment robots.
 | | The one thing Sony cannot produce enough of; the 2nd generation Sony Aibo, codename ERS-210 |
The new architecthure is to be an open platform project named OPEN-R, and will be showcased for the first time at this year's Game Developers Conference. Sony's future plans are to initiate a licensing program, allowing developers to utilize the OPEN-R technology and create new applications for AIBO, bringing the Entertainment Robot platform to a much broader base of perhaps not-so-wealthy consumers.
Sony's OPEN-R technology provides a robot development platform that enables modularity of both hardware (a robot's configuration) and software (what a robot actually does). With OPEN-R architecture, hardware modules, called Configurable Physical Components (CPC), are easily made interchangeable. Built into each CPC is basic data that describes the module's structure, function, and position enabling it to be controlled by the robot's central processing unit (CPU).
As each CPC is attached to the robot, data is transmitted from the new module to the CPU in the robot's body across a high-speed serial bus. The data allows the robot to recognize the configuration of its entire body, its movements, and its functions. The robot then uses the data to select the most appropriate control signals for coordinating the behavior of all its CPCs.
Additionally, the OPEN-R architecture allows for expansion capabilities. For example, with the PCMCIA card slot, all types of add-on capabilities, including wireless applications, are possible.
Sony also claims hardware configuration and software design is made vastly simpler by OPEN-R. With Sony's OPEN-R modular software design, the programs that control a robot's behavior are executed from software modules on the robot's Memory Stick storage media. As OPEN-R architecture enables these software modules to control CPCs that are connected to the main unit (robot's body), consumers can simply pop in a new Memory Stick and interact with their robot as a pet, as an opponent in a game, or in a variety of other robot applications.
Whether it's any good, we probably won't know until in a couple of years - that's likely how long it will take to get new products on the market based on the new open platform if anyone catches on.
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