Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Robot control
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-14
2003-10-28
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Robot control
C700S246000, C700S247000, C700S249000, C700S258000, C700S260000, C700S264000, C318S568100, C318S568120, C318S568170, C318S568220, C901S001000, C901S048000, C901S050000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06640160
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a biped ambulatory robot.
2. Description of the Related Art
The biped ambulatory robots which the inventors and others have striven to put into practical use in recent years are, in essence, humanoid robots; in well-known biped ambulatory robots, similarly to humans, two leg members are provided extending from a hip portion at the lower end of an upper body or torso, and two arm members are provided extending from shoulder portions on the right and left sides of the torso.
In this type of robot, the operation power to operate the leg members, arm members or the like can also be supplied to the robot from outside via a cable. However, the operable range of such a robot is limited, and cable handling becomes complicated. Consequently, it is preferable that the robot itself be equipped with a battery or other electrical storage device as a power supply for operation.
However, when an electrical storage device is provided to the robot as the power supply for operation of the robot, an electrical storage device of comparatively large capacity is necessary in order to secure sufficient continuous operating time, so that the electrical storage device is comparatively large and heavy. In view of the construction of a biped ambulatory robot, the above electrical storage device is generally mounted on the torso of the robot.
However, the torso, including the electrical storage device, of a biped ambulatory robot with such an electrical storage device mounted on the torso is heavy, and when the robot is standing on the floor in a substantially vertically erect posture, a load tends to act on the joints of the leg members supporting the torso. In particular, in order to secure the stability of the posture of a biped ambulatory robot when standing on a floor, it is preferable that the knee joints of both leg members be bent slightly in the forward direction, in this case, if the mounted location of the electrical storage equipment on the torso of the robot is inappropriate, then a large load tends to act on the knee joints of the leg members (a large torque acts on the knee joints from the torso of the robot). In this case, the capacity of the actuators (electric motors) for the knee joints must be increased, but the knee joint actuators tend to be constrained by structure and size parameters, and it is difficult to greatly increase the capacity.
Also, compared with robots having numerous leg members, by its nature a biped ambulatory robot tends to easily lose stability of posture upon receiving an external disturbance or other influence.
For these reasons, the question of where, and in what configuration, to install the heavy electrical storage device on the torso of the robot has been an important problem for purposes of lightening the load acting on the joints (particularly the knee joints) of leg members, and for securing stability of the robot posture.
This invention was devised in light of the above considerations, and has as an object the provision of a biped ambulatory robot having an electrical storage device placement structure which reduces the load on the joints (particularly the knee joints) of the robot leg members, and enables the easy securing of stability of the robot posture.
Another object of this invention is to provide a biped ambulatory robot enabling easy attachment to and detachment from the robot of the electrical storage device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to attain these objects, the biped ambulatory robot of this invention comprises an electrical storage device as a power supply for robot operation and two leg members, and which stands on a floor on a standing posture in which a knee joint in the middle portion of each of the leg members is bent further in the forward direction from the robot than in a vertically-erect posture in which each of the leg members is extended in the vertical direction, wherein said electrical storage device is mounted in an electrical storage device unit provided on the torso of said robot, such that the center of gravity of said electrical storage device exists at a position further forward than the center of gravity of the robot without said electrical storage device in the vertically-erect posture, and the center of gravity of the robot with the electrical storage device thus mounted in the standing posture exists substantially directly above the knee joint of each of the leg members, as seen from one side of the robot.
In this specification, the vertically-erect posture of the robot means the posture in which the two leg members of the robot are extended in the vertical direction, and the entire robot is extended in the vertical direction. The above standing posture is the same posture as the above vertically-erect posture for each of the components of the robot other than the two leg members (torso, arm members, or the like). In this specification, the anteroposterior direction of the robot is the direction perpendicular to both the direction in which the two leg members of the robot are aligned while the robot is in the vertically-erect posture (the robot lateral direction), and to the vertical direction.
In this invention, by ensuring that the center of gravity of the above electrical storage device, in the state in which the electrical storage device is mounted in the above electrical storage device unit, exists in a position which is further forward than the center of gravity of the robot in the case where the robot is in the vertically-erect posture and the electrical storage device is removed, when the robot is viewed from one side (when the robot is viewed from a lateral direction) in the above standing posture with the knee joints of the two leg members of the robot bent somewhat toward the front compared with the vertically-erect posture, the center of gravity of the entire robot, including the above electrical storage device, is made to exist in a position which is substantially directly above the knee joints of the two leg members of the robot. As a result, in the above standing posture, as the basic posture when the robot is standing normally on a floor, the torque acting on the knee joint of each leg member from the upper side of the robot is comparatively small, and the load acting on the knee joints is lightened.
Further, control is generally exercised to stabilize the posture of biped ambulatory robots based on an inverted-pendulum dynamic model such as that disclosed for example in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 5-337849 or in U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,659. This posture-stabilization control uses the behavior of an inverted pendulum in a pseudo-representation of the behavior characteristics of perturbations in the upper-body position of the robot, to control the torque about the ankles of the robot. In a robot for which such posture stabilization control is performed, there are cases in which it is preferable, as a means of securing a stabilized robot standing posture, that, in the above standing posture, a torque which causes the robot to lean forward somewhat acts from the upper-body side about the ankles of both leg members of the robot. In the case of the biped ambulatory robot of this invention, the center of gravity of the entire robot as seen from one side of the robot is positioned substantially directly above the knee joints of the leg members, bent in the forward direction, so that such a torque is made to act about the ankles from the torso. As a result, stability of the standing posture of the robot is easily secured.
In this way, by means of the biped ambulatory robot of this invention, the load acting on by the knee joints of the robot leg members when the robot is in a posture of standing on a floor is lightened, and in addition, stability of the robot posture is easily secured.
As described above, this invention is especially preferable for biped ambulatory robots which perform posture stabilization control based on an inverted-pendulum dynamic model.
In this invention, said electrical storage device is mounted in sai
Matsuda Hiroshi
Miyazaki Susumu
Takahashi Hideaki
Arent Fox Kintner & Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Marc McDieunel
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