Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Robot control
Reexamination Certificate
2002-07-08
2004-01-20
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Robot control
C700S255000, C700S260000, C446S330000, C446S353000, C446S356000, C446S368000, C446S376000, C446S377000, C446S390000, C180S008600, C244S072000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06681150
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an insect robot capable of autonomously performing an action, such as movement with six legs, in action space so as to simulate the behavior of an actual insect, and more particularly, to an insect robot improved so as to be able to move in a vivid and realistic fashion, as if it were an actually living insect, in response to an environmental state associated with lightness of the action space, an environmental state associated with an obstacle, or the like, and in response to a type of another insect robot close thereto.
BACKGROUND ART
Insect robots capable of autonomously moving with six legs in action space so as to simulate behavior of actual insects are used as popular toys. One of such insect robots is that which is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-57159 and which is publicly known as “Six-Leg Kabterius” available from Bandai Co., Ltd.
Toy robots are also popular which start to behave or change behavior in response to an environmental state in action space. One of such toy robots is that which is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-33786 and which is publicly known as “Flower Rock” available from Takara Co., Ltd.
Furthermore, toy robots are also publicly known which identify another robot in action space and change its behavior depending on the result of identification. One of such toy robots is that which is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-7553 and which is publicly known as “Furby” available from Tomy Co., Ltd.
In the conventional toy robots, a microcomputer disposed in a robot performs a sequence of programs during which environmental state information of action space or identification information of another robot is detected by sensors and input into the microcomputer as the input information whereby a type of motion of the robot as a whole is switched into another type of motion thereof as a whole by means of processing the input information through the total performance of a sequence of programs, and thus, the number of types of switchable motion as a whole is very limited. Thus, the manner of switching over the action patterns is too simple to simulate behavior of an actual insect which performs various combinations of a large number of action patterns in response to an environmental state or in response to detection of another insect, and thus it is difficult to express vivid and realistic behavior of an insect. If it is tried to improve the manner of switching over the action patterns such that many types of action patterns become available, the result is an increase in the complexity of a sequence of computer programs. Thus, it is an object of the present invention according to claims
1
to
8
to solve such a problem.
Furthermore, in the conventional technique, in response to information representing an environmental state detected by various types of sensors or in response to detection of another robot, the motion of the robot as a whole is sequentially switched over in accordance with a substantially fixed algorithm prepared for the specific robot, and thus the character of the insect robot defined by the correspondence between the behavior of the insect robot and the environmental state or the identification information of the insect robot is, at least at the level of the individual insect robots, prefixed in accordance with a predetermined algorithm. Thus, it is difficult to change the character of the insect robot from time to time so as to reflect the will of a user. This makes the insect robot less attractive as a hobby toy because of the lack of a sense of game. Thus, it is another object of the present invention according to claims
9
to
16
to solve such a problem.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
The problem of the conventional toy robots, resulting from the simple behavior pattern depending on the environmental state or detection of another insect robot is solved by, in aspects of the invention according to claims
1
to
5
, selecting one action unit from a plurality of action units depending on the environmental state; in aspects of the invention according to claims
6
to
7
, selecting one inter-robot action unit from a plurality of inter-robot action units in accordance with identification information associated with another insect robot; in an aspect of the invention according to claim
8
, selecting a “coward”-type action unit or a “reckless”-type action unit in accordance with the selection priority assigned to the action units or the inter-robot action units, thereby, without recourse to sophisticated and large-scale computer programs, achieving various combinations of a large number of behavior patterns depending on the environmental state and/or in response to detection of another insect robot, and thus providing an insect robot capable of behaving in a vivid and realistic manner.
Furthermore, the problem of the conventional insect robots in terms of being not attractive enough as a hobby toy caused by the lack of a sense of game due to the fixed character of the insect robot is solved by, in aspects of the present invention according to claims
9
to
12
, arbitrarily setting, by a user, an instruction unit arrangement including combinations of one sensor identifying unit and one or more action units so as to sequentially select correspondences between the action unit and the sensor identifying unit depending on the external state; in an aspect of the present invention according to claim
13
, determining a sensor identifying unit in accordance with an other's pheromone signal of another insect robot, a notification pheromone signal, or a space pheromone signal; in an aspect of the present invention according to claim
14
, arbitrarily selecting, by the user, a special command “switch to another panel” provided in an action unit thereby switching the execution from an instruction unit of the present panel to an instruction unit of another panel; in an aspect of the present invention according to claim
15
, arbitrarily setting, by the user, a “sensor identifying unit “trigger after elapse of a particular period of time” such that the sensor identifying unit is determined in response to a trigger signal generated at specified “particular intervals”; in the aspect of the invention according to claim
16
, transferring an instruction unit set by the user using the instruction unit setting means on a mobile computer to the instruction unit storage means in the insect robot; thereby making it possible to change the character of the insect robot from time to time in accordance with the will of the user, and thus the insect robot becomes very attractive As a hobby toy.
In the aspects of the present invention according to claims
1
to
5
, as shown in a claim-correspondence diagram of
FIG. 32A
, an environmental state detection means A detects an obstacle in the action space and outputs an obstacle state signal as the environmental state signal and also detects lightness in the action space and outputs a lightness state signal as the environmental state signal; a plurality of action unit means B respectively define one of “forward movement”, “backward movement”, “right turn”, “left turn”, and “stop” as a type of actions of the insect robot and also define the duration and the execution speed of the defined action; an action unit selection means C selects one of the plurality of action unit means B in accordance with the selection priority preassigned to the respective action unit means B; an action unit execution means D drives motors serving as actuators
13
and
14
, respectively, in each of driving modes, “forward rotation”, “reverse rotation”, and “stop”, preassigned to each type of actions “forward movement”, “backward movement”, “right turn”, “left turn”, and “stop” with a duty ratio corresponding to the execution speed of an action being executed for the duration of the action; and leg means
8
and
9
are moved by actuators
13
and
14
Haga Yoshinori
Kazami Keiichi
Sato Masayosi
Sawajiri Yuji
Suda Shin-ichi
Bandai Co. Ltd.
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Marc McDieunel
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
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