I visited the Boston Museum of Science over fall break and saw their exhibit on robots and artificial intelligence. Supposedly they had an AIBO but I couldn’t find it. They did however have a robot guide that talked about the AIBO. Following is a picture and the transcript

Here is the transcript of the robot guide’s description of the AIBO

Human: Tell me about the robot dog.
Robot: AIBO is a robot, that simulates the behavior of a pet dog. It is one of the most popular robots we have.
Human: OK.
Robot: So, like a real dog, he is able to see things, and also, he responds to a few spoken commands.
Human: Really? How does he do that?
Robot: Well, AIBO has a color digital camera, mounted in his head. The video from this camera is analyzed to identify things he sees.
Human: OK.
Robot: He also has an infra red distance sensor, to detect obstacles and to avoid running into them.
Human: I see. What about spoken commands?
Robot: He has a pair of microphones on each side of his head. This audio input aids in locating the source of a sound.
Human: Interesting. What else can AIBO do?
Robot: AIBO can respond to touch too. If you path him, he will act in an affectionate manner.
Human: (How does he do that?)
Robot: Well, AIBO has touch sensitive pads, on top of his back on his head, chin, and on each paw. When he is touched in these areas, he receives data through these sensors that will make him react with appropriate feedback

A plate about the Kalman filter, which we use in localization:

Motion creator for AIBO:

A robot similar to the Roomba:

R2D2 and pals

See all the relevant pictures here