JP2002312275A - System for automatically delivering motion program for robot, and robot device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system capable of easily transferring the CM motion program necessary for the motion of a robot 12 from an enterprise homepage 26, for example, and capable of expressing the information based on the motion program as the motion of the robot in a user side. SOLUTION: This system 10 for automatically delivering the motion program for the robot is provided with a personal robot 12 having several motion parts to be operated with a control by a microcomputer on the basis of the motion program stored in a memory, a terminal device 4 such as a personal computer connected to the robot through the radio communication, and an external server device 26 of an enterprise homepage including, for example, Java (R) Program and connected to the terminal device through the Internet channel 24 including a fixed network 22. The motion program automatically downloaded from the server device 26 to the terminal device 14 is transferred to the robot 12 and stored in the memory.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic distribution system of a robot operation program, an automatic reception system of a robot operation program, and a robot device, and more particularly to a CM operation posted on a company homepage or the like via the Internet. The present invention relates to a robot operation program automatic distribution system, a robot operation program automatic reception system, and a robot apparatus that can load a program into a user's personal computer and transfer and store the operation program to a robot as necessary.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A personal robot currently on the market, for example, a personal robot in the form of a human body or an animal, is provided with a dedicated operation program in advance. In accordance with the program, the robot performs a single operation of the head, a leg, an arm, and the like including the face, or performs a comprehensive operation of each of these units. In addition, a robot having a function of automatically updating the operation program by a learning effect has been proposed.

[0003] However, in the conventional case, the operation program mounted on the robot can be slightly changed by a learning effect, but in reality, operation based on a completely new operation program cannot be expected.

In recent years, a wide range of computer communication networks formed by connecting a LAN or individual personal computers to a communication line such as a telephone line has become widespread. The computer communication network includes the Internet and a personal computer communication service network.

[0005]

Therefore, the user uses the Internet, such as a computer communication network, to obtain, for example, the robot C from the service information registered in the external server device in a communication terminal device such as a personal computer owned by the user.
There is a demand for the appearance of a personal robot capable of performing various operation patterns, for example, an operation pattern based on a corporate CM operation program, by automatically taking in the M operation program.

Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to download a CM operation program registered in an external server device through a communication network, for example, an Internet line, to a user's personal computer or the like, and to transfer the program to a personal robot as necessary. It is an object of the present invention to provide a robot operation program automatic distribution system and automatic reception system that can be used, and a robot apparatus to which these systems are applied.

[0007]

The present invention has a database stored in an external server device connectable from a terminal device via a communication network. The database stores service information including a robot operation program. An automatic distribution system for a robot operation program, which is registered and distributes service information to a terminal device.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a terminal device connected via a communication network to an external server device having a database in which service information is registered, and the external server device is accessed based on an instruction from the terminal device. In addition, the present invention is an automatic robot operation program receiving system that converts desired information from a database into a robot operation program form and downloads the operation program to a terminal device. Further, another invention is a robot apparatus having at least one operation part and operating based on an operation program stored in a memory, and transferring the operation program from an external server device to a memory via a communication network. A robot device to be acquired.

[0009]

For example, a new operation program can be obtained by easily downloading, for example, a CM operation program registered in an external server device such as a company homepage on a terminal device such as a personal computer via the Internet line. .

This operation program can be transferred from a terminal device to a robot device via a communication network and used as a new operation program.

[0011]

According to the present invention, a desired robot CM operation program can be easily taken into a terminal device such as a personal computer of a user from, for example, a company homepage, and information based on the CM operation program can be obtained on the user side. Can be expressed as the operation of the robot device.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0013]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an automatic distribution / reception system 10 for a robot operation program according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, an automatic distribution / reception system 10 includes a personal robot 12 as an operating device in the form of a human body, a terminal device 14 connected to the robot 12 by wireless or wired communication, and a terminal device 14 and a modem. A communication network (internet line) 24 including a fixed network 22 connected by an analog line via the LAN 16 or connected to the home LAN 18 via a connection terminal adapter 20 via an ISDN line, and a link to the communication network 24 An external server device 26 having a database in which various service information such as a company homepage is registered is included.

The personal robot 12 has a body 12a,
It includes a pair of left and right legs 12b, a pair of right and left arms 12c, and a head 12d, and includes a systematic operation command to be described later or an operation program in which these are combined (hereinafter, "operation including one operation command"). It is equipped with a function for decoding the program and calling itself, and can operate according to the downloaded operation program.

This operation program is automatically or intentionally downloaded by the user from the external server device 26, and is provided in a storage unit (memory) provided inside the robot 12.
Once, and can be executed according to conditions or can be executed in real time simultaneously with downloading.

The robot 12 has a wireless communication device (not shown) such as an infrared data communication (IrDA) or a short-distance wireless LAN such as Bluetooth, and is connected to the terminal device 14 by the wireless communication device. ing.

The terminal device 14 includes, for example, a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as “PC”) owned by the user, a terminal dedicated to the Internet (hereinafter, referred to as “dedicated terminal”), or a personal communication device such as a cellular phone 28 shown in FIG. . When the terminal device 14 is the mobile phone 28 shown in FIG. 2, the terminal device 14 is connected to the fixed network 22 via the base station 30. The terminal device 14 usually incorporates client software called a browser for circulating through Internet resources. And the terminal device 1
4 accesses the database of the external server device 26 using this browser.

Also, a program (Applet) in Java language for downloading the above-mentioned operation program is prepared in advance in the external server device 26 such as a company homepage as a link destination.
When the company homepage or the like is accessed from the terminal device 14 such as C or a dedicated terminal via the fixed network 22 which is a communication network, the program (Applet) is automatically executed, and the operation program for the robot passes through the terminal device 14. Is downloaded to the robot 12.

The robot 12 interprets the downloaded operation program, and drives and controls a mechanism constituting the robot 12 and an actuator such as a motor for moving the mechanism.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration mounted on the robot 12. As shown in FIG.

In FIG. 3, an upper main control board 32 includes a microcontroller 34, a communication interface 36 for enabling connection with an external device such as a personal computer (PC), a network, or a terminal device 14 such as a mobile phone 28, A programmable device 40 connected to a plurality of external connection boards 38 and 38 via a bus and capable of rewriting an internal logical operation circuit by configuration data sent from the microcontroller 34;
And memory 4 connected to microcontroller 34
2 is installed.

As the communication interface 36, for example, RS-232C or USB by wire connection, infrared data communication (IrDA) by wireless, or Bluetooth which is promising as a next-generation short-distance wireless LAN
th.

The programmable device 40 has, for example, an F architecture whose internal architecture has an SRAM structure.
A PGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) and the like are available as products from ALTERA and XILINX.

The memory 42 includes a microcontroller 34
And a RAM for storing data used by the microcontroller 34 when executing the program, such as a flash memory for storing the program and data necessary for the configuration of the FPGA 40.
And a part.

An FPGA 44 as a programmable device is mounted on a plurality of external connection boards 38 and 38 connected to the main control board 32 via a bus. The internal logic operation circuit of the FPGA 44 is a configuration signal transmitted from a dedicated control signal bus 46. This is configured according to the ration data.

The connection bus 48 interconnecting the FPGAs 40 and 44 mounted on the main control board 32 and the external connection boards 38 includes data, control signals and power supply lines.

Each external connection board 38 has a robot 12
A general-purpose device that can capture digital pulses and analog voltage signals such as a potentiometer for measuring displacement at the final stage via an encoder 52 and a reduction gear mechanism connected to a motor 50 that operates each of the operation parts, and a force sensor. The sensor interfaces 54 are respectively mounted, and control signals are taken into the FPGA 44 from the sensor interfaces 54.

Further, between each motor 50 and the FPGA 44, each motor 50 is controlled in accordance with a command value from the FPGA 44.
A voltage driving circuit (driver) 56 for controlling the voltage applied to the power supply is connected to each of them. This driver 56
For example, a PWM control that repeats switching at a predetermined frequency (about 16 kHz) from the FPGA 44 and controls a duty (a ratio of an ON state where a voltage is applied and an OFF state where a voltage is not applied) within one cycle is used.

The external connection board 38 has a bus configuration as shown by a dotted line and a solid line in FIG. 3, so that a plurality of boards having the same configuration can be connected according to the number of motors 50 used in the application. is there. in this case,
The ID for identifying the board can be set by providing a jumper pin on the board or by directly writing the configuration data of the FPGA 44.

As the external connection board 38, not only a board having the same configuration for driving the motor but also an image input / output board, a sound input / output board, and the like can be connected as required by an application.

Next, the schematic configuration of the actuator such as the motor 50 driven by the hardware configuration of the electric circuit shown in FIG. 3 and the swing mechanism of the robot 12 driven by the same will be briefly described with reference to FIG. explain.

First, in FIG. 3, the motor 50 connected to the driver 56 is incorporated in a mechanism for moving the head of the robot 12 back and forth as shown in FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b). The actual neck angle is determined by the potentiometer 6 connected to the last stage through the reduction gear mechanism 58.
0 is detected, and the detected signal (voltage signal) is fed back to the FPGA 44 constituting the motor controller via the sensor interface 54.

Each of the other axes basically has such a configuration. However, when a wheel drive is employed as a moving mechanism and the amount of movement, rotation angle, direction, and the like are to be accurately controlled, a motor is required. A rotation angle detection sensor such as a rotary encoder is provided on the shaft, and motor servo control is performed using a semi-closed loop.

Next, a format example of the robot operation program automatically downloaded will be described.

FIG. 5 shows a part of a command format example. The command is composed of a text command in ASCII code and a series of parameters (movement amount, movement speed, rotation angle, rotation angular speed, etc.) necessary for the command.

For example, the command No. In the case of 1, the first text represents the movement, the second, the straight ahead by the wheel drive, and the fourth the direction. The fifth and sixth parameters are numerical parameters indicating the moving amount and the moving speed.

When an identifier indicating a delimiter between commands is indicated by “:” and an identifier indicating the last is indicated by “;”, a simple operation program example can be written as follows.

That is, MWSB 20 10: WW: D100: MNR10 10; In this case, the retreat of the distance of 20 is started at the speed of 10 and the movement amount of 10 at the speed of 10 after 100 counts from that time. Tilt your head for a minute. Without WW: D100 :, you start tilting back and tilt your head at the same time, and you can also perform two actions at the same time.

The flow of automatic download of the operation program having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, the communication terminal starts, and in step S1, it is determined whether or not there is access from the terminal device 14 such as a PC, a dedicated terminal or a mobile phone to the external server device 26 such as a company homepage via the Internet line 24. A check is made, and if the result is "NO", the process returns to the start, and if "YES", the process proceeds to step S3. In step S3, it is searched whether or not an Applet programmed in Java language to automatically download the CM operation program of the robot 12 exists on the company homepage 26. If the result is "NO", the process returns to the start, If “YES”, the process proceeds to step S5. In step S5, Applet (Java Program) is automatically downloaded, and the process proceeds to step S7.

In step S7, the applet is automatically executed, and the process returns to the start. Thereby, step S9
In, the CM operation program of the robot 12 downloaded to the terminal device 14 is automatically downloaded to the robot 12 by infrared data communication (IrDA) or the like.

On the other hand, the robot starts, and in step S11, it is in an autonomous operation state in which the robot freely acts in a normal autonomous mode according to an operation program previously held on the robot 12. Then, in step S13, it is checked whether or not a new operation program of the robot 12 has been received on the robot side by the automatic download by Applet described above. If the result is "NO", the process returns to the start, and "YES" is returned. If there is, the process proceeds to step S15.

In step S15, a new CM operation program received from the terminal device 14 is set (stored) in a memory (ROM such as a flash memory). further,
In step S17, if the set CM operation program clears (satisfies) the operation conditions such as time, the process proceeds to step S19, where the contents of the CM operation program are interpreted, and a motor or the like is used to cause an actual operation. Is converted into information necessary for each actuator and output.

Then, in step S21, this CM operation program is executed, and the robot 12 performs an actual operation and returns to the start. Also, in the case of "NO" in which the operation condition is not cleared (satisfied) in step S17, the process returns to the start.

The processing on the external server side is as shown in FIG.
The flowchart is shown in FIG.

That is, start and step S23
In step S25, it is checked whether or not the terminal device 14 has accessed the homepage of the external server device 26 such as a company.
If "O", the process returns to the start. Then, step S25
Then, download the homepage data including Applet and return to the start.

According to the above operation flow, the CM operation program for the robot on the external server device 26 such as the company homepage is automatically downloaded to the robot 12 without the user's particular consideration. Can be expressed as the behavior of the robot 12 corresponding to

FIG. 8 shows external server device 2 by data communication.
6 through the Internet line 24 to the terminal device 14
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration in which, for example, a CM operation program is downloaded and further transferred to the robot 12 as an operation terminal.

When the terminal device 14 is a portable telephone 28 or a PHS as shown in FIG. 2, the basic sequence is the same as that described above, and the data communication to the robot 12 is performed by infrared data communication (IrDA). Alternatively, it is possible with a dedicated communication cable. In the future, short-distance wireless LANs (such as Bluetooth) will be adopted for these portable devices, so that wireless connection is also possible.

Also, as shown in FIG.
(Home Network) If there is a digital home appliance 62 connected to the home network 18, the state of the home appliance 62 and abnormalities detected on the device side are automatically downloaded to the robot side, and information transmission to the user is transmitted to the robot 12. Can be expressed in conjunction with the action of

Furthermore, if a short-distance wireless LAN (such as Bluetooth) is mounted on the home electric appliance 62 itself such as an air conditioner, the operation program and information of the robot 12 can be directly transferred without passing through the terminal device 14 such as a PC. is there.

As described above, according to the present invention, service information registered in an external server device such as a company homepage, for example, a CM operation program of the company is converted into operation information in a desired form, and is converted via the Internet line. To download to a user's terminal device, for example, a personal computer. Then, this operation information can be transferred to an operation terminal, for example, an operation device such as a personal robot as needed, and the service information posted on the external server device can be expressed by the operation of the robot.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a robot operation program automatic distribution / reception system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an automatic distribution / reception system of a motion gram for a robot according to another embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a circuit block diagram of a hardware configuration mounted on the robot shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

4 (a) and 4 (b) are explanatory views of a robot actuator driven by the hardware configuration shown in FIG. 3 and a main mechanism moved by the actuator.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a part of an example of an operation command format of a robot.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of automatic download of an operation program on the communication terminal side and the robot side.

FIG. 7 is an operation flowchart on the external server side.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of data communication in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 9 shows a home LA showing still another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram when a digital home electric device is connected to N.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Automatic distribution / reception system 12 ... Personal robot 14 ... Terminal device 22 ... Fixed network 24 ... Internet line (communication network) 26 ... Company homepage (external server device) 28 ... Mobile telephone 30 ... Base station

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on front page (72) Inventor Hideaki Aoki 2-5-5 Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 2C150 CA01 CA02 CA04 DA04 DA05 DA24 DA25 DA26 DA27 DA28 DF03 DF04 DF06 ED42 ED52 EF07 EF16 EF23 EF29 EF33 EF36 3C007 AS36 BS27 JS03 MT15 WA03 WA13 5H269 AB33 BB08 EE19 KK04 KK06

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A database stored in an external server device connectable from a terminal device via a communication network, service information including a robot operation program is registered in the database, and the terminal device stores the service information. An automatic distribution system for robot operation programs that distributes service information. 2. The automatic distribution system according to claim 1, wherein said database includes a homepage. 3. The automatic distribution of the robot operation program according to claim 1, wherein the service information includes a transfer program for automatically transferring the robot operation program to a robot device connected to the terminal device. system. 4. An external server device having a database in which service information is registered, the terminal device being connected via a communication network to the external server device, and accessing the external server device based on an instruction from the terminal device, More desired information is converted into a robot operation program form,
An automatic receiving system for an operation program for a robot, wherein the operation program is downloaded to the terminal device. 5. The automatic operation program receiving system according to claim 4, wherein the terminal device includes one of a personal computer, an Internet terminal, and a mobile phone. 6. A robot device having at least one operation part and operating based on an operation program stored in a memory, wherein the operation program is obtained from an external server device to the memory via a communication network. A robot device that is designed to be used. 7. The robot device according to claim 6, wherein the operation program is obtained from a terminal device connected to the external server device via a communication network.