Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Giken Kabushiki Kaisha

Masaki Aihara

Naohide Ogawa

Takashi Matsumoto

Yuichiro Kawaguchi

Shinichiro Kobashi

Taro Yokoyama

Yoko Saito

In an apparatus for controlling a mobile robot having movement mechanisms and work mechanisms both connected to a body, a battery connectable to an external power supply through a charging connector, actuators powered by the battery to drive the mechanisms, and a controller for controlling an action of the movement mechanisms and the work mechanisms through the actuators, the controller comprises a connector connection determiner to determine whether the charging connector is connected to the external power supply and an action restrictor to restrict one of the actions of the movement mechanisms and the work mechanisms performed through the actuators when the external power supply is determined to be connected.

Apparatus for controlling mobile robot

In an apparatus for controlling a mobile robot having leg locomotion mechanisms for traveling and walking and work mechanisms both connected to a body, actuators for driving them, and a controller for controlling the operation of the locomotion mechanisms and work mechanisms by supplying the actuators with a control value calculated by multiplying a deviation between a detected value and a desired value by a gain and to control operation of a speech input/output unit to recognize a human voice inputted through a microphone and utter a generated response to the human voice from a speaker, the controller calculates the gain of the control value to be supplied to at least one of the actuators at a minimum value when controlling only the operation of the speech input/output unit.

In an abnormality detection system of a mobile robot, it is configured such that it is self-diagnosed whether the quantity of state is an abnormal value, or whether at least one of the internal sensor, etc., is abnormal and when an abnormality is self-diagnosed, abnormality information is outputted, then the degree of abnormality is discriminated based on the outputted abnormality information and the robot is driven into a stable state in response to the discriminated degree of abnormality. With this, it becomes possible to effectively utilize the abnormality detection result. In addition, since the robot is driven into a stable state in response to the discriminated degree of abnormality, it becomes possible to render the driving appropriate.

Abnormality detection system of mobile robot

In an abnormality detection system of a mobile robot, it is configured such that it is self-diagnosed whether the quantity of state is an abnormal value, or whether at least one of the internal sensor, etc., is abnormal and when an abnormality is self-diagnosed, abnormality information affixed with a time on which the abnormality occurred is outputted to be stored in an internal memory and in an external memory. With this, it becomes possible to improve the reliability of abnormality detection of the mobile robot and by storing the information affixed with a time on which the abnormality occurred, it becomes possible to ascertain accurately the course of events leading up to the abnormality. It is further configured such that in addition to a time on which the abnormality occurred, the information is stored in an external memory together with a parameter indicative of the quantity of state.

Provided is a method in which a communication state between a main control unit and each sub control unit can be judged to be normal or abnormal, in a condition where a noise may be generated from a drive system power line. This method includes a power supply step s, a test communication step (see arrows () and ()), and a judgment step s. In the power supply step s, power is supplied to first sub control unitsfrom a drive system power sourcewhile no power is supplied to actuatorsfrom the power source. In the test communication step, communication of a test signal is performed between the main control unitand each of the sub control units. In the judgment step s, whether the communication state is normal or abnormal is judged based on the result of the communication of the test signal between the main control unitand each of the sub control units

Method for judging communication state in a control system of linked joints

According to a legged mobile robot of the present invention, a variable measuring portionmeasures the changing amount of a secondary desired angle &#x3b8;, namely, of the newest primary desired angle &#x3b8;that is received by a first sub-control unitas a variable &#x3b4;. When a determining portiondetermines that an absolute value of the variable &#x3b4; exceeds a threshold &#x3b5;, a correcting portioncorrects a motor current I so as to inhibit the changing amount of the motor current I. Thereby, even when an abnormality is temporarily generated in the communication between a main control unitand a first sub-control unitvia a first communication line and the absolute value of the variable &#x3b4; exceeds a threshold &#x3b5;, the current supply I to a motoris inhibited from changing rapidly.

Moving body, legged mobile robot, and control program

A method of appropriately controlling functions of a moving body having a joint such as a robot in view of the content of an error detected in the functions of the moving body. A mode setting section () sets 'a first mode' for halting first and second functions at least after the end of a starting period of the robot () in response to the detection of 'a first error' by an error detecting section (). The mode setting section () halts the first function at least after the end of the starting period in response to the detection of &#x201c;a second error&#x201d; by the error detecting section (), while setting &#x201c;the second mode&#x201d; for adjusting control unit () or the like using the second function during the starting period. Furthermore, the mode setting section () sets &#x201c;the third mode&#x201d; for moving the robot () using the first and second functions in response to the detection of &#x201c;a third error&#x201d; by the error detecting section ().

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Wako, Japan

Masaki Aihara