Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Giken Kogyo K.k.

Masao Nishikawa

Takashi Aoki

Yoshimi Sakurai

Yoichi Sato

Masato Hirose

Yoshihiko Toshimitsu

Junichi Miyake

Yukihiro Fukuda

Hiroshi Gomi

Shinzo Sakai

Hiroshi Yoshizawa

Masaru Ozawa

Toshihiko Aoyama

Toru Takenaka

Hideaki Takahashi

Torao Hattori

Hitoshi Yamamoto

Nobuaki Ozawa

Tokuro Takaoka

Takashi Matsumoto

Tadanobu Takahashi

Nobuo Anno

Tomoharu Kumagai

Hidehiko Inoue

Noriyuki Takahashi

Mitsuaki Hirakawa

Kouji Yamaguchi

Shoei Abe

Shinnosuke Ishida

Takashi Hotta

Ryutaro Yoshino

Kenshiro Hashimoto

Akira Iwasaki

Kenshirou Hashimoto

Shinzou Sakai

Shino Sakai

Tomoharu Kamagai

Akira Takeno

Katsuhiko Fujimoto

A steering assist system in a vehicle, wherein the traveling of a vehicle along a reference lane can be realized by applying a reference induction force determined in accordance with the magnitude and direction of a deviation of the subject vehicle from a reference target course (zone) established within the reference lane, and moreover, the lane change can be easily and naturally performed by a driver. A second target course (zone) is established in a second lane along which the vehicle travels after the lane change. A second induction force applied to a steering means to realize the traveling of the vehicle along the second lane is set in accordance with the magnitude and direction of a deviation of the subject vehicle from the second target course (zone). The reference target course (zone) and the second target course (zone) are connected in a connection course (zone) in which the force applied from a driving means to the steering means during the lane change is substantially '0'.

Steering assist system in a vehicle

In a steering angle correcting system, a steering amount required to maintain a positional relationship of a subject vehicle to a road lane ahead of the subject vehicle is calculated in a steering amount calculating device based on outputs from a first detecting device for detecting the state of a lane of a road ahead of the vehicle or which the vehicle is traveling, and a second detecting device for detecting a current positional relationship of the subject vehicle to the road lane. A steering device is driven by a driving device mounted between a grasping portion of a steering wheel and the steering device so as to decrease the difference between a steering amount detected by a steering amount detecting device and a steering amount calculated in the steering amount calculating device. Whenever a driver's intention and the determination by the system are different from each other, a driver can operate the steering wheel to intervene in the steering. In addition, the driver can immediately intervene in the steering at all times, while normally maintaining a cooperating relationship with the system. Thus, the steering angle correcting system has a semi-automatic steering concept.

Steering angle correcting system in vehicle

A system for controlling locomotion of a legged mobile robot walking in a working space. The system is provided with optical detects which are disposed in a line array at the both sides of a foot member of the robot. On the other hand, a landmark is provided in the working space. The landmark comprises of a line or an arc which divides the space into two regions with different attributes, i.e. different in brightness. The optical detectors generate different signals depending on the brightness. With the generated signals, a relative position of the robot to the landmark is detected. Moreover, when the landmark is an arc, its center is located in line with a work for the robot. a relative direction of the robot to the landmark or the work is detected. Based on the detection, locomotion of the robot is controlled in such a manner that the robot can stably ascend/descent stairs or spiral staircases.

System for detecting and controlling the position of a mobile robot

A system for correcting the steering force of a vehicle having a steering wheel whose rotary motion exerted by a vehicle driver is converted into a turn motion of the steering wheels of the vehicle through a steering mechanism. The system is provided with sensors including a CCD camera for detecting the condition of the road ahead having at least one traffic lane on which the vehicle is traveling and a position of the vehicle with respect to the traffic lane. In the system the desired steering force is determined to be generated by the steering mechanism necessary for keeping the detected position of the vehicle with respect to the traffic lane based on the detected parameter and the steering mechanism is biased such that the steering mechanism generates the desired steering force. Conditions on the next adjacent lanes are monitored and the degree of danger is estimated to determine the biasing force. The system can be realized on muscular-energy steering systems or power-assisted steering systems.

Vehicle steering force correction system

A legged mobile robot having a body and two legs each connected to the body. The robot is quipped with a mechanism for absorbing and moderating impacts produced by external forces during footfall or the like. The mechanism includes an elastic member interposed between the body and legs, or interposed between the leg links, or interposed between the distal end of the legs and foot portions. The robot further has a foot structure for enhancing the ground gripping force and absorbs the impacts. For enhancing the gripping force, the foot sole is provided, for example, with a first elastic member and second elastic member sandwiching a plate spring therebetween. The first elastic member absorbs the impacts, while the second elastic member enhancing the gripping force. The plate spring restrict the deformation of the elastic members in the direction vertical to the foot sole. The invention further includes a locomotion control system using one shock absorbing mechanism.

Legged mobile robot and a system for controlling the same

An impact absorber for a legged mobile robot having a body and two legs each connected to the body for absorbing impact arising when the robot collides with pipes or other objects in its walking environment so as to protect both the robot and the object. In a first embodiment, the impact absorber comprises a balloon disposed around the body and filled with air. When the balloon comes into contact with the object, it is deflated so as to absorb impact arising from the contact. In a second embodiment, the impact absorber comprises a cylinder fixed to the robot leg and a piston slidably disposed in the cylinder so as to define a chamber filled with an oil. A flat member is fixed to the rod of the piston and when it comes into contact with the object, the piston is thrust into the cylinder so as to absorb the impact. The impact absorber may be a resilient material coating on the robot to cushion the impact when the robot comes into contact with the object, or it may include air bags.

Legged mobile robot equipped with impact absorber

A locomotion control system for a biped walking robot having a body and two legs each connected to the body through a hip joint and each having ankle joint adjacent to its foot portion. A walking patter is preestablished in advance in terms of a trajectory of IMP (Zero Moment Point) at which horizontal moment acting on the robot generated by the ground reaction force is zero, a trajectory of the body's attitude or the like. During walking, actual ground reaction force is detected to determine an actual ZMP position and detected position is compared with a target IMP position obtained from the IMP trajectory. When there is an error between the positions, the robot legs are driven in such a manner that the error decreases. More specifically, if the actual IMP position is shifted forward the target ZMP position, the moment produced therefrom causes the robot to tilt backward. Therefore, it is controlled such that the forward foot is lifted vertically, while the rearward foot is lowered vertically, thus producing a moment in the opposite direction to restore the stable attitude. The robot can therefore be simulated as an inverted pendulum so that constantly maintains a prescribed restoration force and control characteristics becomes liner. Various embodiments are proposed for the same purpose. Alternatively, output rate of time series data is changed in response to the robot's unstable attitude.

Locomotion control system for legged mobile robot

A foot structure of a biped waling mobile robot having a body and two articulated legs each having a foot at its distal end. In the foot structure, a movable foot piece is housed in each foot which is driven by an actuator to be swung out to enlarge the ground contact surface. A controller provided for the actuator and based on a condition of walking such as stair descending, it controls the operation of the actuator such that the foot's ground contact surface is enlarged. The structure has another aspect in which a ratio between distances from a point at which the foot is connected to the leg to the foot ends can also be adjusted in response to the walking condition. Moreover, the foot can be arranged such that the foot is configured to have portions to be contact with the ground at its four corners and the movable foot pieces have additional contact portion enlarging or reducing the ground contact portions.

Legged mobile robot foot structure

An articulated mechanism for use as an articulated arm of an industrial robot, for example, includes a plurality of arms interconnecting articulations having respective fluid pressure angular displacement motors for angularly displacing the arms relatively to each other. The motors have sidewalls forming working chambers, where an inner surface of the sidewall is exposed to working fluid pressure tending to bow the sidewall outward, and an outer surface of the sidewall has a plurality of counteracting pressure chambers which apply a counteracting pressure force against the sidewall to oppose the outward bowing force, the counteracting pressure force increasing in pressure surface area as the piston is displaced within the motor chamber.

Angular displacement motor with counterbalance chambers

An armature winding structure for use in an electric motor includes a web-shaped strand bundle composed of a plurality of parallel strands. The strand bundle has a plurality of longitudinally spaced bends and a plurality of straight strand bundle segments. Adjacent ones of the strand bundle segments are positioned one on each side of one of the bends. The strand bundle segments are transversely staggered on one side of the strand bundle successively from one end to the other of the strand bundle, by intervals each substantially equal to the width of the strand bundle. The strand bundle segments thus staggered are longitudinally folded over along fold lines extending respectively across or near the bends transversely of the strand bundle, thereby providing a plate-like winding in which the strand bundle segments lie adjacent to one another.

Armature winding structure for electric motors

A legged walking robot such as a two-legged walking robot has a plurality of movable legs and a plurality of foot soles mounted respectively on distal ends of the movable legs by respective foot joints. Each of the foot soles has a curved surface disposed on at least a portion of a peripheral edge thereof. The curved surface is shaped such that the foot joint follows a predetermined curved path along a forward direction in which the legged walking robot walks. The foot sole also includes at least one projection on one or each of leading and trailing ends of the foot sole in the forward direction. The projection is movable into and out of a projecting position from the foot sole, but is normally urged into the projecting position to support the foot sole stably on the terrain.

Foot structure for legged walking robot

A servo system for controlling locomotion of a biped walking robot, made up of a body link and two leg linkages each connected to the body link by a first drive joint and each including knee and ankle joints, to follow up a target angle for each drive joint predetermined in series with respect to time such that the robot walks. In order to stabilize robot posture when it could turn over, the drive speed of the joints are feedback controlled in responsive with the robot turnover probability. Moreover, the predetermined robot gait is modified at such instance, for example, in such a manner that robot leg lands one of additionally preestablished candidate positions for robot leg landing.

System for controlling locomotion of legged walking robot

A legged walking robot such as a two-legged walking robot, for example, has an articulated structure with at least two degrees of freedom, one of which is a degree of freedom for angularly moving a leg in a pitch direction about a first axis of a hip joint assembly, comprising an electric motor for angularly moving the leg in the pitch direction. The electric motor has an output shaft which is axially aligned with the first axis about which the leg is angularly movable in the pitch direction. The articulated structure also has a speed reducer having an input shaft which coaxial with the output shaft of the electric motor. The other degree of freedom is a degree of freedom for angularly moving the leg in a roll direction normal to the pitch direction. The articulated structure also includes a second electric motor for angularly moving the leg in the roll direction and a second speed reducer having an output shaft which is coaxial with a second axis about which the leg is angularly movable in the roll direction.

Articulated structure for legged walking robot

A biped walking robot and system for controlling the robot. The system provides smooth posture control by eliminating interference arising between the frictional force of the ground acting on the legs of the robot and the driving force of the leg joints. A six-dimensional force and torque sensor is provided to detect six force or moment components and based thereon, an angular command to joint motors is corrected. A joint structure of the robot is described, wherein the axes of the drive joints are arranged at right-angles to one another to thereby enable accurate positional control to be effected using Cartesian coordinates.

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Tokyo, Japan

Masao Nishikawa