AIBO ("stylized aibo, Artificial Intelligence Robot", homonymous with , "pal" or "partner" in Japanese) is a series of robotic dogs designed and manufactured by Sony. Sony announced a prototype Aibo in mid-1998. The first consumer model was introduced on 11 May 1999. New models were released every year until 2006. Although most models were dogs, other inspirations included lion-cubs or huskies/jack-russel terrier/bull terrier, and space explorer, and only the ERS-7 version, ERS-110/111 and ERS-1000 versions was explicitly a "robotic dog", but the 210 can also be considered a dog due to its jack-russel terrier appearance and cute puppy face.