AIBO: still in use after Sony stopped repairs

Sony stopped making AIBO in 2006 and stopped repairing it in 2014. Some owners kept theirs running anyway.

What it was

AIBO was a robot dog made by Sony. The first model, ERS-110, was announced on 11 May 1999 and went on sale on 1 June for 250,000 yen; the first batch sold out online in 20 minutes. Sony sold about 150,000 units over seven years.

What happened

On 26 January 2006 Sony announced it would stop making AIBO, as part of an effort to make the company more profitable. Sony kept repairing existing robots for several more years and ended repairs in 2014. From then on, a broken AIBO could no longer be fixed by its maker.

What owners did

A-Fun, a repair company in Chiba Prefecture founded by former Sony employee Nobuyuki Norimatsu, kept AIBOs running by taking parts from units that could no longer be repaired. Before taking the parts, the company held a funeral for the donor robots at Kōfuku-ji, a Buddhist temple in Isumi. The first ceremony, in 2015, was for 17 AIBOs. By April 2018 about 800 had been sent off.

What it shows

AIBO did not need its maker’s servers to work. When Sony withdrew, the robots kept working for as long as they could be repaired, and owners found a way to repair them. Sony’s new aibo, launched in January 2018, depends on a cloud subscription. In the US, the first three years are included and the plan has to be renewed after that.

What would owners need to keep this product working without its maker?

What we don’t know

How many original AIBOs still run today
Whether independent repair is still available, and at what cost
What the 2018 aibo can still do if its cloud subscription lapses