Patent ID: 8016654

Claim:
An arm-wrestling robot comprising: an arm-force generation mechanism including: a mechanical arm with a hand that a user grasps to play an arm-wrestling match; an electric motor that provides torque to the mechanical arm according to motor control input signals; a position/velocity sensor that detects angular position and angular velocity of the electric motor, and generates feedback signals related to the detected angular position and angular velocity; and a torque sensor that detects torque acting on the mechanical arm; and a control system coupled to the arm-force generation mechanism, wherein for each match between the arm-wrestling robot and the user, the control system: (i) detects an amount of arm-force generated by the user, (ii) generates at least one of a plurality of different game sub-scenarios, (iii) executes force feedback control logic to control force and motion of the mechanical arm according to the generated sub-scenario, and (iv) produces the motor control input signals to implement the generated sub-scenario, wherein the control system comprises: an amplifier part that amplifies and conditions a low level voltage signal corresponding to the torque detected by the torque sensor; a logic circuit part that conditions the feedback signals generated by the position/velocity sensor; a memory part that stores a control program including control logic; a control part that produces the motor control input signals using the control program stored in the memory part and the feedback signals generated by the position/velocity sensor; and a motor driving part that drives the electric motor according to the motor control input signals produced by the control part.