Robot apparatus

Abstract: In order to realize a robot apparatus which can be applied to a configuration including two or more separate groups of arbitrary component units (3A-3D, 4A-4D, 5, 6) combined into a complete assembly, and thus facilitate the architecture of a new form, the apparatus includes first storage means (16) for storing shape information for determining shapes of the component units, second storage means (16) for storing motion information required to describe motions of the component units, and third storage means (16) for storing characteristic information on electronic parts (15) contained in the component units. Detecting means (14) detect the coupling states of the respective component units, whereby a control means (10) can automatically recognize the entire structure and motion characteristics of the respective component units based on the detection results of the detecting means (14), thus making it possible to realize a robot apparatus which can be applied to a configuration including two or more separate groups of arbitrary component units combined into a complete assembly.

Description: This invention relates to a robot apparatus, of the kind disclosed in WO90/06546, on which the preamble of the claim is based. Many types of robot are assembled in a predetermined form using a variety of component units including a body, legs, a head, and so on respectively combined in predetermined states defined by a predetermined correlation of the component units. In such a structure, the robot has a control unit having the structure of a microcomputer including a central processing unit (CPU) as well as actuators each having a predetermined degree of freedom and sensors for detecting predetermined physical amounts, and so on, which are placed at their respective predetermined positions. The control unit individually controls the operations of the respective actuators based on outputs of the respective sensors, associated programs, and so on, thereby enabling the robot to autonomously run and perform predetermined operations. As an alternative, in recent years, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid Open Application No. 245784/93, a robot which can be constructed in a desired form by combining a plurality of joint modules and a plurality of arm modules has been considered. The robot disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 245784/93 has the function of setting a unique number to each joint module. A control unit can recognize a connection order in which respective joint modules are connected, based on the unique numbers of the joint modules provided thereto through communications between the control unit and the joint modules, and rewrite a control program in an appropriate program based on the recognition results. This configuration allows the robot to eliminate a sequence of operations required to create software at the site for assembling the robot (for example, editing, compilation, link, and so on of programs). In the robot configured as described above, however, the control unit recognizes the connection order for the respective joint modules based on the unique numbers thereof, so that if the connection order for the joint modules is to be changed, new unique numbers must be set again to the respective joint modules corresponding to the change. In addition, since the foregoing Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 245784/93 is intended to provide a manipulator device, the contents disclosed therein are not sufficient to support a robot including two or more separate groups of component units and support a robot utilizing a variety of sensors such as a microphone, a camera, and so on. For example, in a robot composed of a plurality of component units, if a control unit controlling the operation of the robot can automatically acquire information required to control operations of the component units, such as the shapes of respective component units, positions of parts such as actuators and a variety of sensors, capabilities of these parts, and so on, the control unit can automatically create a corresponding program even when two or more separate groups of component units are combined into a complete assembly, when a new component unit is added or removed or a component unit is repositioned. Therefore, the architecture of a robot in a new form can be facilitated. Document WO90/06546 discloses a modular robotic system including robotic arm sets each of which includes passive and active members of selected sizes and shapes. The active members each include a microprocessor for translating end effector position signals from a central processor in the system to obtain desired movements of the active members. The present invention provides a robot apparatus composed of one or a plurality of component units, comprising: logical means for logically combining said component units in accordance with a tree structure to configure one or more sites; input means for inputting an action goal outputted from a higher rank of said tree structure; generating means for generating an action at a current time; and operation instruction generating means for generating an operation instruction to an actuator for driving a corresponding one of said component units from said action at the current time; characterised in that: goal generating means is provided for forcing each of said sites to independently generate a further action goal; selecting means is provided for selecting one of said first-mentioned and said further action goals; output means is provided for outputting said first-mentioned or said further action goal selected by said selecting means to a lower rank of said tree structure; and said generating means is operable to generate the action at the current time for said first-mentioned or said further action goal selected by said selecting means. In an example, each storage means of the respective component units constituting the robot apparatus stores a conversion program for converting first data, represented in a predetermined data format commonly determined beforehand for each function of the electronic parts by a control program used by the control means for controlling the respective component units, into second data represented in a data format used by the respective electronic parts for each function. As a result, the respective component units can be designed independently of the data format previously determined by the control program. Thus, the invention provides a robot apparatus which is applicable to a case in which two or more separate groups of arbitrary component units are combined into a complete assembly, and is capable of facilitating the architecture of a robot in a new form. The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, throughout which like parts are referred to by like references, and in which: Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the configuration of a robot; Fig. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the robot shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a tree structure related to coupling of respective component units; Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a directed graph data structure; Fig. 5 is a flow chart explaining a control procedure for the robot executed by a CPU; Figs. 6A to 6C are schematic diagrams explaining how each site of a virtual robot is specified; Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a functional block structure for providing an entire robot with autonomy; Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a graph structure of MoNet; Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conceptual configuration of a robot according to an embodiment of the invention; and Fig. 10 is a conceptual diagram explaining functions of respective component units. With reference to figures 1-6, an illustrative example will be presented, which does not include all the features of the claim. Referring to Fig. 1, numeral 1 generally shows a robot in which thigh units 3A to 3D and shin units 4A to 4D are removably mounted in order at four corners, i.e., front, rear, left, and right corners of a body unit 2, and a neck unit 5 and a head unit 6 are removably mounted in order at a central portion of a front end of the body unit 2. As illustrated in Fig. 2, the body unit 2 contains a central processing unit (CPU) 10 for controlling the operation of the entire robot 1, a serial bus host (SBH) 11 for managing a serial bus described later, a distributor (HUB) 12, and a memory 13. The memory 13 stores information on the shape of the body unit 2 such as the width, length, and so on (hereinafter, called "shape information"), information required to describe motions of the body unit 2 such as the mass, rotation moment, center of the axis of rotation, position of the center of gravity, and so on of the body unit 2 (hereinafter, collectively called "motion information"), positional information on respective joining points p1 to p5 of the HUB 12, and so on. Each of the component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6, except for the body unit 2, contains an HUB 14, electronic parts 15 such as actuators and sensors, and a memory 16. Each of the memories 16 of the respective components units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 stores shape information and motion information on the corresponding unit of the component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6, information on functions and characteristics of respective electronic parts 15 contained in the corresponding unit of the component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 (hereinafter, called the "characteristic information"), and so on. Further, the HUB 12 of the body unit 2 is connected to the HUBs 14 of the neck unit 5 and the respective thigh units 3A to 3D through serial buses 17 such as the institute of electrical and electronics engineers, Inc. (IEEE) 1934, the universal serial bus (USB), or the like. In addition, the HUBs 14 of the neck unit 5 and the respective thigh units 3A to 3D are respectively connected to the HUB 14 of the head unit 6 and to the HUBs 14 of the corresponding shin units 4A to 4D through the similar serial buses 17. The above configuration enables the CPU 10 of the robot 1 to read a variety of information stored in the memories 16 of the respective component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6, to send control signals to the actuators disposed in the respective component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6, and to receive outputs of sensors disposed in the respective component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6, sequentially through the SBH 11, the HUB 12 and the HUBs 14 of the respective component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6. Thus, in the robot 1, the CPU 10 can automatically grasp the configuration of the entire robot 1, i.e., which of component units 3A to 3D, 5 are coupled to which portions of the body unit 2, and which of the component units 4A to 4D, 6 are coupled to the component units 3A to 3D, 5, in accordance with the positional information on the respective joining points p1 to p5 of the HUB 12 stored in the memory 13 of the body unit 2 and the shape information respectively stored in the memories 16 of the component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 except for the body unit 2. while, the CPU 10 can drive the component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 in desired conditions by driving the actuators disposed in the desired component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 in accordance with the motion information, the characteristic information and so on stored in the memories 16 of the respective component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 except for the body unit 2. At this time, the CPU can also monitor the current states of the component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 by the outputs of the sensors disposed in the respective component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6. In practice, the memories 16 of the respective component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 store, as the characteristic information on the actuators constituting the corresponding electronic parts 15, for example, information such as the type of each actuator (linear type or rotary type), information describing, for example, "a control signal composed of a pulse signal including ten pulses is required to advance the rotating angle by one degree", and so on. In operation, the CPU 10 reads information as mentioned above from the memories 16 of the respective component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6, and creates a conversion program for converting angle data, for example one degree, into a pulse signal having ten pulses which represents the movement distance of a linear motion in accordance with the read information. Subsequently, the CPU 10 sends a control signal in accordance with the movement distance, obtained by the conversion program, to the component unit 4A to control the operation of the actuator disposed in the component unit 4A. The CPU 10 creates a tree with respect to connections of the respective component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 as illustrated in Fig. 3 in accordance with information showing which of the component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 are connected to which component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6, and stores the tree as data of a directed graph data structure illustrated in Fig. 4 (hereinafter, the structure is called as the "virtual robot") in the memory 13 of the body unit 2. Also, the CPU 10 sequentially reads the shape information on the respective component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 stored in the memories 13 and 16 of the corresponding component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 in a time division manner at predetermined intervals to check the entire structure. Here, a control procedure executed by the CPU 10 for controlling the robot 1 will be described with reference to a flow chart illustrated in Fig. 5. The case of controlling the operation of an actuator included in the electronic parts 15 of the thigh unit 3A will be described here as an example. First, the CPU 10 starts a control processing for the robot 1 at step SP1, and reads a variety of information from the memory 16 of the thigh unit 3A at step SP2. Then, at the subsequent step SP3, the CPU 10 determines the type of actuator disposed in the thigh unit 3A in accordance with the variety of read information. If it is decided that the actuator of the thigh unit 3A is linear type, the control processing proceeds to step SP4. At step SP4, the CPU 10 converts a predetermined angle data (angle) into a movement distance (length) of linear motion, and then sends a control signal corresponding to the movement distance (length) to the actuator of the thigh unit 3A at step SP5, to terminate the control processing for the robot 1 at step SP6. On the other hand, if the CPU 10 decides at step SP3 that the actuator of the thigh unit 3A is rotary type, the control processing proceeds to step SP7, where the CPU 10 sends a control signal corresponding to the predetermined angle data (angle) as it is to the actuator of the thigh unit 3A, to terminate the control processing for the robot 1 at step SP6. The foregoing processing procedure can be similarly applied to the remaining component units 3B to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6. Actually, in the robot 1, the CPU 10 may read a variety of data only once when the respective component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 are coupled to the body unit 2. Therefore, the CPU 10 of the robot 1 is configured to subsequently set a movement distance to each of the remaining component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 coupled to the body unit 2 at a predetermined timing. In the robot 1 configured as described above, the CPU 10 grasps the entire structure of the robot 1 in accordance the shape information, motion information, and characteristic information related to the component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 stored in the memories 13 and 16 of the component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6, and controls the operations of the respective component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6. Thus, in the robot 1, the CPU 10 can always grasp the entire structure of the robot 1 and control the operations of the respective component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 irrespective of a combination of the component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6. Here, two cases, (A) and (B), are considered with respect to the programming for a robot. In the case (A), a designer, who is to create a program for controlling the robot, knows respective component units of the robot to be used by himself, and also knows how to combine them for use. The programming for general autonomous robots or the like falls under this case. In the other case (B), the user freely selects the component units of a robot and freely combines them into a complete assembly. The programming for the robot 1 of this embodiment falls under that is case. Further, there can be thought two specifying methods for a robot (virtual robot) automatically recognized by a system, i.e., which part constitutes the head of the robot, which part constitutes the forelegs of the robot, and so on. One method (1) is that a designer provides such information, and the other method (2) is that such specifying information is added to a variety of information stored in respective component units. In the former specifying method (1), a designer provides specifying information for a blue print robot (a robot having a data structure designed by the designer) 18 illustrated in Fig. 6A. The specifying information are that respective parts of the blue print robot 18 having certain functions and composed of one or more component units are designated as a head, forelegs, and so on, and where the respective sites are positioned. The blue print robot of Fig. 6A means that the component units 5, 6 of the physical robot (real robot) 1 of Fig. 1 constitute a head of the blue print robot 18; the component units 3A and 4A right forelegs; the component units 3B and 4B left forelegs; the component units 3C and 4C right hind legs; the component units 3D and 4D left hind legs; the component units 3A, 3A, 3B, and 4B foreleg portions; the component units 3C, 4C, 3D, and 4D hind leg portions; and all the component units complete the entire robot. Of course, more detailed specification can also be provided for the component units 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6, for example, the left hind leg can be classified by the shin unit 4C and the thigh unit 3C. In the former case (A) of the programming for the robot, the designer corresponds the blue print robot to the virtual robot to communicate information between the blue print robot and the actual component units only using the blue print robot. On the other hand, in the latter case (B) of the programming for the robot, it is difficult to create a program for an autonomous robot. This is because it is unknown at the time of creating a program as to whether the robot has tires, how many legs the robot has, and so on. It is however possible to read information on the virtual robot, transfer data to a personal computer, and depict a current shape of the robot from the tree structure on a display of the personal computer. In this case (that is, in the case (B)), the respective component units of the robot can be interactively moved using the graphical user interface (GUI) on the personal computer. For actually performing the interactive operation, the virtual robot in the system may be transferred to the personal computer. Also, in this case, an alternative system may also be built in a manner contrary to the above. Specifically, the personal computer may be provided with predetermined design drawings showing how respective component units are coupled (actually, the design drawings have the same data structure as that of the virtual robot), such that the personal computer compares in shape currently used component units sent thereto from the robot with the respective component units on the design drawings to inform the user that erroneous component units are used, the coupling order is not correct, or the like, for example, by flashing corresponding positions on a robot image graphically represented on the display of the personal computer. By summarizing the aforementioned configuration, there are the following cases (A) and (B), as a programming method. (A) the case where a designer knows the configuration of a robot. (B) the case where a user can freely change the configuration of a robot. Further, there are the following methods (1) and (2) in regard to information of whether which parts or combinations of which parts are effective. (1) a designer gives the information. (2) the information is previously stored in the parts. Here, in a combination of (A) and (1), since the designer knows configurations of parts and functions of the robot beforehand, the information can be reflected at the time of programming. If (A) and (2) are combined, the designer can previously know the information stored in the parts, so that the program is created as the same with the combination of (A) and (1). On the other hand, in a combination of (B) and (1), as described above, motions and functions are interactively applied by using the PC or the like. In a combination of (B) and (2), the user use a combination of certain parts as function parts. In the case, there are two control methods. The former method is a method of interactively generating motions of the function parts. The latter method is a method of using motion data which is prepared for using the previously corresponding sites as the corresponding functions. Further, as described later, a device driver corresponding to functional information can be stored in the respective memories. According to the foregoing configuration, the respective component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 contain the memories 13 and 16 which store shape information, motion information and so on of the corresponding component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6, and the CPU 10 can read a variety of information respectively stored in the memories 13 and 16 of the component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6 as required, so that the CPU 10 can grasp the entire structure of the robot 1 irrespective of coupling states of the component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6, and control the operations of the respective component units 2, 3A to 3D, 4A to 4D, 5, 6. Thereby making it possible to realize a robot apparatus which can be applied to a configuration including two or more separate groups of arbitrary component units combined into a complete assembly, and thus facilitate the architecture of a robot in a new form. Next, it is considered that an entire robot having two hands, two legs and a head is provided with autonomy, according to the invention. In this case, the provision of autonomy may be seemingly realized by a functional block structure as illustrated in Fig. 7. More specifically, an automaton 30 is a higher rank program for giving the goal for the action of the robot based on outputs of sensors disposed in respective component units, and a MoNet 31 is a lower rank program having a graph structure as illustrated in Fig. 8 for restricting transitions of the attitude of the robot. An output from the MoNet 31 is time series of Nodes (attitude, state) ST1 to ST4 of the graph structure, and Edges (programs for changing the attitude) E1 to E6 between the respective Nodes ST1 to ST4 store programs for controlling actuators (hereinafter, called the "motors") of respective component units such as a head and legs. A motor command generator 32 (MCG) (Fig. 7) uses the programs stored in the Edges E1 to E6 to generate commands to the respective motors in the entire robot and outputs the commands to the associated motors. In summary, the embodiment is intended to achieve complicated operations of the robot by a combination of coordinated operations of the respective component units and independent operations of the respective component units. Specifically, the respective component units such as the head, hands, legs and so on of the robot as well as the entire robot are provided with the autonomy as mentioned above such that the respective component units can independently operate based on outputs of sensors disposed in the respective component units and also operate in response to instructions given thereto from the control unit which collectively governs the respective component units. Fig. 9 illustrates the configuration of a robot 40 according to the embodiment which has two hand blocks, two leg blocks and a head block. In the aforementioned arrangement of Figs. 1 and 2, the body unit 2 is physically connected to a head block composed of the neck unit 5 and the head unit 6 and to four leg blocks composed of the thigh units 3A to 3D and the shin units 4A to 4D. However, in Fig. 9, a body block 41 is logically connected to a hand block 42, a leg block 43 and a head block 44, and the hand block 42 and the leg block 43 are further connected to left and right component blocks 42A, 42B, 43A, 43B, respectively. Fig. 10 illustrates functions of the respective component blocks 42, 43, 42A, 42B, 43A, 43B illustrated in Fig. 9. Similarly to the functional block structure illustrated in Fig. 7, the component blocks 42, 43 are each composed of an automaton 30A, MoNet 31A and MCG 32A, while the component blocks 42A, 42B, 43A, 43B are each composed of an automaton 30B, MoNet 31B and MCG 32B. It should be noted however that two groups of instructions exist in the respective component blocks 42, 43, 42A, 42B, 43A, 43B, i.e., a group of instructions issued within the component blocks themselves 41 to 44, 42A, 42B, 43A, 43B and a group of instructions generated in higher ranks of a tree structure and inputted thereto. Thus, first Comps 50A and 51A and second Comps 50B and 51B are provided for selecting one of the two groups by making them contend with each other. When outputs of the first Comps and second Comps are inputted to the MoNet 31A, 31B or the MCG 32A, 32B of the respective functions, the outputs are simultaneously inputted to the corresponding sites 42A, 42B, 43A, 43B which are branches of the respective component blocks, and similar processing is performed in these sites. Typically, the contention is such that an output from a higher rank is given priority as default setting. Generally, an autonomous robot implies a problem as to how to treat reflective actions and actions taken in accordance with time consuming plans. The use of a tree structure for a logical structure of the robot 40 having meaning as illustrated in Fig. 9 is advantageous in giving an answer to the problem. Specifically, lower rank branches (Right Hand, Left Hand, and so on) in the tree structure are released from tasks with a large amount of calculations which must be solved by upper rank branches (Hands, Body, and so on). For example, a task of converting a trajectory of a motion of a hand in a three-dimensional space into angles of respective joints (inverse kinematic calculation) or the like requires a large amount of calculations for a branch at a higher rank. Thus, component units corresponding to hands and legs can make a quick response. According to the foregoing configuration, each component unit can be provided with autonomy in a robot assembled by combining two or more separate groups of arbitrary component units. Consequently, the robot can achieve complicated motions by executing simpler programs.

Claims: A robot apparatus composed of one or a plurality of component units, comprising: logical means for logically combining said component units in accordance with a tree structure to configure one or more sites (42, 43); input means for inputting an action goal outputted from a higher rank of said tree structure; generating means (31B) for generating an action at a current time; and operation instruction generating means for generating an operation instruction to an actuator for driving a corresponding one of said component units from said action at the current time; characterised in that : goal generating means (30A, 30B) is provided for forcing each of said sites to independently generate a further action goal; selecting means (51A) is provided for selecting one of said first-mentioned and said further action goals; output means is provided for outputting said first-mentioned or said further action goal selected by said selecting means (51A) to a lower rank of said tree structure; and said generating means (31B) is operable to generate the action at the current time for said first-mentioned or said further action goal selected by said selecting means (51A).

Inventors: FUJITA MASAHIRO, FUKUMURA NAOHIRO, KAGEYAMA KOJI, SAKAMOTO TAKAYUKI, FUJITA, MASAHIRO, FUKUMURA, NAOHIRO, KAGEYAMA, KOJI, SAKAMOTO, TAKAYUKI, Fujita, Masahiro, c/o Int. Prop. Dpt., Fukumura, Naohiro, c/o Int. Prop. Dpt., Kageyama, Koji, c/o Int. Prop. Dpt., Sakamoto, Takayuki, c/o Int. Prop. Dpt.
Applicants: SONY CORP, SONY CORPORATION
Application year: 1997
Main classification: B25J9
IPC codes: B25J9