Many who own the Sony AIBO, a $2,000 robotic dog that has personality traits, and speech recognition, believe it to be better than a real dog. It doesn’t need to be fed, or go for a walk to do its business, or need to be cared for while traveling. But, last week, Sony announced that, after six years and sales of 150,000 units, it is killing the AIBO, in an effort to cut costs. The closure of Sony’s entire robotics unit is imminent.

Meanwhile, another robotic toy company is ramping up. It was announced today that the co-creator of the blockbuster toy Furby, toy inventor Caleb Chung, will be joining forces with former Lucas Film President, Gordon Radley, at Ugobe. Based in Emeryville, California, the startup is developing an allegedly revolutionary robotic toy that blurs the line between robot and real life form.

[Update: Ugobe officially launched today (2-6-06) at DEMO, and announced their first product, a baby dinosaur named Pleo. Pleo will cost $200 and be available Q306. Engadget has the details of this amazing lifelike creature.]

In other consumer robot news, Japanese beer company Asahi announced last week that it will be giving away 5,000 refrigerated robots. The robots can remove a beer from a refrigerated storage area, open the can, and pour it into a mug!