Sony Partners with UC Berkeley and University of Tokyo on Next-Generation aibo Robot Dog

On July 17, 2026, Sony Group Corporation announced a research collaboration with two university laboratories — one at the University of Tokyo and one at UC Berkeley — aimed at expanding the future capabilities and services of the aibo entertainment robot. The move is the clearest public signal yet that aibo development continues after Japan sales of the current model ended, and it ties into a broader Sony push into physical AI that includes a Nature-published table tennis robot and a new talent fund at the University of Tokyo.

What Sony Announced: Prototype Hardware and Dev Tools for University Labs

Sony is providing both partner labs with prototype aibo models designed for research and development use, along with beta-version development tools to support their work . The stated goals are to obtain feedback from researchers, developers, and creators on the development hardware and environments, to "accelerate the future development of aibo," and to contribute to applied research in physical AI .

The partner labs and professors are:

• University of Tokyo — Prof. Kei Okada's lab, Department of Mechano-Informatics, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology .
• UC Berkeley — Asst. Prof. Angjoo Kanazawa's lab, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences .

Prof. Okada described the prototype aibo as a potential platform for "real-world physical intelligence" research, envisioning it as a tool for thinking about a future where humans and robots coexist . Asst. Prof. Kanazawa's lab plans to explore robot learning algorithms that incorporate social interaction and tactile information, leveraging aibo's dog-like form and contact-friendly design — qualities that distinguish it from industrial robots .

The Timing: Just Weeks After ERS-1000 Japan Sales Ended

On June 25, 2026, Sony announced that Japan sales of the current aibo model (ERS-1000, Ivory White) would be discontinued once existing stock runs out . The announcement surprised many aibo fans, but Sony immediately emphasized that product development, business operations, and the aibo brand would continue, and that U.S. sales were unaffected . The university research collaboration, announced less than a month later, is the strongest evidence yet of that continued development pipeline.

SIGGRAPH 2026 Exhibition

Sony will exhibit an R&D-use prototype aibo at SIGGRAPH 2026, held July 21–23, 2026, in California, at the Sony Group booth (Booth No. 643) . This marks the first public showcase of the prototype hardware being used in the university collaboration.

The Bigger Picture: Three Moves Point to a Physical AI Strategy

The aibo university partnership is one of three recent Sony initiatives that, together, indicate a coordinated pivot toward next-generation robotics powered by external academic expertise.

Ace Table Tennis Robot (Nature, April 2026)

On April 22, 2026, Sony AI published a cover paper in Nature introducing "Ace," described as the first autonomous system capable of competing with top human table tennis players . Ace beat elite and professional players in official matches using event-based vision sensors, model-free reinforcement learning trained entirely in simulation, and high-speed robotic hardware with an end-to-end reaction time of roughly 20 milliseconds — about 10 times faster than a human . Sony AI President Michael Spranger called Ace a "ChatGPT moment for robotics" .

Sony Group Human Resource Development Fund at UTokyo

On July 1, 2026, Sony and the University of Tokyo announced the establishment of the "Sony Group Human Resource Development Fund" within the UTokyo Foundation, along with a planned "Cross-Boundary Innovation Research Center" launching October 1, 2026, to foster next-generation talent across technology, humanities, and industry .

What the Combined Signals Indicate

Taken together, these three moves — (1) the aibo university collaboration with R&D prototypes, (2) the Nature-published Ace robot breakthrough, and (3) the UTokyo talent fund — strongly indicate that Sony is developing a next-generation aibo by leveraging external academic expertise in physical AI, rather than relying solely on internal R&D. The provision of prototype hardware and dev tools to university labs reflects a deliberate strategy to crowdsource innovation for aibo's next iteration, with SIGGRAPH 2026 serving as the first public showcase of where that future may be headed.