There are further additions if you don’t care to program your pooch. You can “potty train” your Aibo using a mapping feature, teach it to be quiet and carry it in an upright position. You can also feed the bot by using virtual coins to buy “aibocrisps,” but you’ll want to be cautious. While you’ll earn coins for free by signing into the My Aibo app, Sony also offers coins for purchase with real-world money. Yes, your robot dog now has microtransactions.

Aibo is still far from a trivial purchase at $2,900. However, the developer tools make it easier to justify if you’re the tinkering sort. You can treat it more as a project than a novelty with a fixed set of features.

The kit can run Linux out of the box, and supports a raft of AI frameworks (including, of course, NVIDIA’s own). It comes equipped with 4GB of RAM, gigabit Ethernet and the I/O you’d need for cameras and other attachments.

Price, unsurprisingly, is the main hook. While the Nano isn’t nearly as powerful as higher-end Jetson models, it’s available now at $99 for individuals and $129 for “production-ready” units destined for companies. That puts it within range of hobbyists, inventors and students who are willing to spend a bit more (but only a bit more) to create their own automated devices.