Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Takuro Koyanagi

Susumu Miyazaki

Kenichi Ogawa

Satoshi Kaneko

Atsushi Demachi

Toshiyuki Higashi

Yasuhisa Saito

Teruyuki Oka

Toratsugu Kuwahara

Takamichi Shimada

Hideaki Takahashi

Naohide Ogawa

Hiroshi Matsuda

Takashi Nakayama

Sachie Hashimoto

Ryuma Ujino

Asuka Shinna

Yukiko Ehara

The present invention aims to provide an autonomous moving robot capable of visibly showing the human an initial check result for a sound input means in the initial stage after the robot device is turned on and activated, and whether or not the input sound was normally recognized. The robot has earsrespectively comprising microphonesfor external sound input, and LED displayswith a plurality of luminescent portions around the respective microphones. The luminescent portions of the LED displaysindicate the judgment of the initial check on whether or not the ears(the microphonesand the LED displays) are normally functioning when the robot is turned on and activated, by means of the lighting states of the displays.

Sound detection and associated indicators for an autonomous moving robot

A charging system is capable of charging a battery of a biped walking robot while stabilizing the posture of the biped walking robot and also restraining the occurrence of spark discharge or noises. A charger of the charging system for charging the battery provided in the biped walking robot includes a seating and retaining unit for retaining the biped walking robot in a seated posture, a power feeding connector that is fitted to a power receiving connector provided in the biped walking robot when the biped walking robot sits on the seating and retaining unit, and a charging unit having a connection detector for detecting whether the power receiving connector and the power feeding connector are in a connected state, a charging power source for supplying charging current to the battery, and a charging controller that supplies charging current to the battery from the charging power source to charge the battery when the connection detector detects that the power receiving connector and the power feeding connector are in the connected state.

Charging system of biped walking robot

An inexpensive charging system with a simple construction can supply charging current to a battery of a legged walking robot while maintaining the supply of required current to an electric load of the legged walking robot by an external power source. The charging system includes a connection circuit having a first, a second diode, a third diode, and a circuit that brings various negative electrode and a negative input terminal of the electric load into conduction, and an output electric power controller that sets an output voltage of the external power source to be higher than a total voltage of a voltage across electrodes of the battery when the battery is fully charged and a forward voltage of the third diode, while setting a current of the external power source that can be output to be larger than a required current of the electric load.

Charging system for legged walking robot

A bipedal robot of the present invention has a trunk consisting of an upper trunk and a lower trunk which are rotatable around a rotation axis relative to one another. The upper trunk has shoulders on the right and left sides. An arm is provided at each shoulder. A pair of right and left legs is attached to lower ends of the lower trunk. A storage battery is mounted to the back of the upper trunk, positioned within a shoulder width. The storage battery is positioned below the top of a head mounted on the upper trunk. When the robot walks a narrow passage or corridor having a width slightly larger than the width thereof, for example, this arrangement prevents the storage battery from interfering with the passage or the like.

Bipedal robot with storage battery

In an overcurrent prevention system for a robot having links connected by joints and an electrical system including electric motors installed at the joint, a power circuit connecting the electric motors to a power source, and drive circuits to supply current to the electric motors, there are provided a switching device installed in the power circuit, a current sensor detecting the current supplied to the electric motors, and the output of the current sensor is compared with a threshold value and the switching device is operated to execute a switching action to cut off the power circuit intermittently during a first predetermined period when the output of the current sensor exceeds the threshold value, thereby protecting the electrical system when overcurrent is detected, without causing functional disablement and/or posture instability of the robot.

Robot overcurrent prevention system

A bipedal robot has an upper body that includes a higher upper body and a lower upper body. The higher upper body and the lower upper body are coupled to each other by a rotating mechanism so as to be rotatable with respect to each other about a vertical axis of rotation. Two legs extend from the lower upper body, and two arms extend from respective shoulders on opposite sides of the higher upper body. The higher upper body of the robot has a thickness in a forward/rearward direction and the lower upper body has a width in a lateral direction, the thickness and the width being smaller than the width in a lateral direction of the robot at the shoulders. An electric energy storage device, which serves as a power supply for operating the robot is mounted in the higher upper body, and an electronic circuit unit for controlling operation of the robot are mounted in the lower upper body. With this robot arrangement, the robot is capable of increased working capability without impairing the stability of the attitude when the robot works.

Bipedal robot

An electric energy storage device has a power supply for operating a robot and is mounted on an upper body of the robot at a position such that the electric energy storage device has a center-of-gravity point present upwardly and rearwardly of the center-of-gravity point of the robot from which the electric energy storage device is removed and which is in an upstanding state. Shoulders of arms extending from the upper body of the robot have a center positioned forwardly of the center-of-gravity point. An imaging device for robot vision is supported on an upper end of the upper body of the robot by an attachment, which is positioned forwardly of the center-of-gravity point. It is thus possible to achieve attitude stability with ease when the robot walks and works.

Growing community of inventors

Wako, Japan

Takuro Koyanagi