JP2002189608A - Communication device and communicating method, information processing system, programming method, network system, and robot device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate programming. SOLUTION: A gateway object 48 for transmitting/receiving data to/from the object of a robot device 1 is allocated to a PC card 41 for wireless LAN of the robot device 1 while a gateway object 52 for transmitting/receiving data to/from an object on a personal computer 32 is allocated to a network adaptor 31 of a remote system 30. When the PC card 41 and the network adaptor 31 are connected to each other by wireless or by wire, inter-object communication is performed between the object of the robot device 1 and the object of the personal computer 32 by performing inter-object communication between the gateway object 48 of the PC card 41 for wireless LAN and the gateway object 52 of the network adaptor 31.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication device and a communication method for performing communication between electronic devices, an information processing system for performing information processing, a program creation method for creating a program, a network system, and a robot device. About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a pet-type robot device that behaves like an animal has been proposed. For example, the behavior of the robot device is defined by a program or the like for performing inter-process communication between a plurality of processes.

[0003]

By the way, in an embedded device such as a robot device that performs complicated processing in real time, it takes a lot of time to develop software that operates on a target board. The reasons are as follows.

(1) There are few means for monitoring the state of a program operating on a target board.

(2) Normally, there is no device for displaying the internal state on the target board, so that it communicates with the remote machine by some method, sends the internal information, and confirms it on the console of the remote machine. An approach is taken. In such a case, it is necessary to embed a communication code in a program on the target board.

(3) Further, when the communication technique is not generalized, the user must create a communication code for each program to be debugged. The simplest of these techniques is printed in the source code.
There is a method of inserting a minute and confirming it at a terminal using serial communication. This technique is called print statement debugging, and many systems still use this primitive technique.

(4) In many real-time OSs, since a real-time task of a user is executed in a kernel space, the system is destroyed due to illegal processing of the task. However, even if an attempt is made to investigate the cause of such a failure, the cause cannot be known because the system is destroyed. In addition, recompiling when debugging print statements can change the arrangement of code and change the behavior of bugs, making the cause more difficult to understand.

(5) Since the user's real-time task is linked to the kernel space, a change in the user program results in relinking and re-execution of the entire system. For example,
Even if you put one line in the print statement, you will have to redo all. This is inefficient.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and a communication apparatus and a communication method for easily changing between software (process) components, an information processing system, a program creation method, a network system, It is another object of the present invention to provide a robot device.

[0010]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a communication apparatus according to the present invention has a first information processing process for transmitting and receiving data to and from an information processing process of a first electronic device. Communication means, and a second communication means having an information processing process for transmitting and receiving data to and from the information processing process of the second electronic device. Then, when the first communication unit and the second communication unit are connected wirelessly or by wire, an information processing process for transmitting / receiving data of the first communication unit and data transmission / reception of the second communication unit are performed. By performing inter-process communication with the information processing process to be performed, inter-process communication is performed between the information processing process of the first electronic device and the information processing process of the second electronic device.

[0011] With the communication device having such a configuration,
In order for the inter-process communication between the information processing object of the first communication means and the object of the second communication means to behave like inter-process communication on the same system, Communication with the information processing process of the second electronic device is handled as inter-process communication on the same system.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication method comprising: a first communication unit having an information processing process for transmitting / receiving data to / from an information processing process of a first electronic device; Information for transmitting / receiving data of the first communication unit by connecting wirelessly or wiredly to a second communication unit having an information processing process of transmitting / receiving data to / from an information processing process of the second electronic device By performing inter-process communication between the processing process and the information processing process for transmitting and receiving data of the second communication unit,
Inter-process communication is performed between the information processing process of the first electronic device and the information processing process of the second electronic device.

According to such a communication method, the inter-process communication between the information processing object of the first communication means and the object of the second communication means behaves as if it were an inter-process communication on the same system. First
The communication between the information processing process of the electronic device and the information processing process of the second electronic device is treated as inter-process communication on the same system.

Further, the information processing system according to the present invention comprises:
In order to solve the above-described problems, an electronic device controlled by an information processing process, an information processing process used to control the electronic device are fetched, and an information processing apparatus that handles the information processing process; Communication means for performing wireless or wired communication with the processing device. Then, the information processing device performs communication by a communication unit between the information processing process of the information of the electronic device and the captured information processing process when the electronic device is operated, and transmits from the information processing process of the electronic device. It handles the information processing processes that are captured using the incoming data.

With this information processing system, the information processing apparatus handles an information processing process in which electronic devices in a real environment are considered.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program creating method for processing an electronic device controlled by an information processing process when the electronic device is operated. An information processing process for performing communication with the above information processing process by using wireless or wired communication means, using data transmitted from the information processing process of the electronic device in the information processing apparatus, and using the data for the electronic device. And a program incorporation step of incorporating the information processing process created in the program creation step into the electronic device.

According to such a program creating method, the information processing apparatus creates an information processing process in consideration of an electronic device in a real environment, and the electronic device creates information processing in consideration of such a real environment. Processing process is incorporated,
It operates based on the information processing process.

Further, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a network system according to the present invention includes: a robot device having an operation control program constructed by inter-object communication;
In a network system in which a computer system constructed by inter-object communication performs data communication via wired or wireless communication, the protocol conversion in the inter-object communication and the network communication between the robot device and the computer system is performed. It is characterized by having a gateway object that performs dynamically.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the communication method according to the present invention includes a robot device constructed with inter-object communication and a computer system constructed with inter-object communication. In a communication method for performing data communication via a wire or wirelessly, protocol conversion in the inter-object communication and network communication between the robot device and the computer system is performed.

Further, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a robot device according to the present invention is a robot device in which an operation control program is constructed by inter-object communication, and a computer system constructed by inter-object communication. A robot apparatus that performs data communication via a wired or wireless connection between the robot apparatus and a gateway object that dynamically performs a protocol conversion in the inter-object communication and the network communication with the computer system. I do.

[0021]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, the present invention is applied to a network system in which a pet-type robot device in which software (object) is constructed in an object-oriented manner is connected by wired or wireless communication.

The pet-type robot apparatus is designed to produce, for example, a gesture similar to an animal as a result of various processing by inter-object communication (inter-process communication). It is needless to say that the robot device connected to the network system is not limited to the pet type robot device, and it is needless to say that the robot device is configured according to the significance of the present invention. First, the configuration and the like of the robot device will be described, and then the network system to which the present invention is applied will be described in detail.

(1) Configuration of Robot Device (1-1) Overall Configuration The robot device 1 is a so-called pet-type robot device as shown in FIG.
It is designed to be able to walk on four legs. That is, in the robot apparatus 1, the moving unit 3 is attached to the main body 2, and the main body 2 is composed of the head 2A and the body 2B.

The head 2A has a microphone 4, a touch sensor 5,
A television camera 6 capable of stereoscopic viewing, an infrared receiving unit 7 for remote control, and the like are arranged so that various kinds of information can be obtained. An image display unit 9 and a speaker 10 are arranged on the head 2A, so that various information can be output by these. Needless to say, the configuration of the head 2A is not limited to such a configuration. That is, for example, the image display unit 9 is configured by an LED (Light Emitting Diode) to express a facial expression. You can also do so.

The body 2B is provided with an operator 11 at the back and an antenna 12 at a position corresponding to the tail, through which a user's operation can be detected. I have. Further, the body 2B has a slot, and an IC card can be inserted into this slot so that software version upgrade or the like can be executed.

The body 2B includes a controller 15 for processing various information input / output via the head 2A and operation information of the operation elements 11 and the like to control the overall operation, and a power supply unit for supplying power to each unit. 14, a communication unit 16 for transmitting and receiving various information via the antenna 12 and the like are arranged, and a battery 17 is arranged below.

On the other hand, the moving unit 3 is formed by arranging four feet each having an actuator and an angle detection sensor at positions corresponding to joints, and connected to the main body 2 by a serial bus. It operates under the control of. Thereby, the robot device 1
Is designed to be able to move by quadrupedal walking.

Further, the rear unit of the moving unit 3 can be detached from the main body 2. The robot apparatus 1 is configured such that a mobile unit provided with a tire can be attached instead of the rear foot. Thereby, the robot apparatus 1 can change the form between a form that moves with four feet (hereinafter, referred to as a quadruple type) and a form that moves with tires (hereinafter, referred to as a tire type) according to the user's preference. It has been made like that.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the robot device 1. As shown in FIG. In the robot apparatus 1, a program medium 20 storing a processing program is connected to a central processing unit 22 via a peripheral 21, and the central processing unit 22 controls the program medium 20.
Is executed.
The central processing unit 22 is connected to the actuators and sensors of the mobile unit 3 via the peripherals 21 and also to the robot device components 24, 25 and 26 such as the television camera 6, the operating element 11, and the like. Operation can be controlled.

The central processing unit 22 also
The power supply unit 14 is connected via a peripheral 21 to a one-chip microcomputer 27 for controlling the power supply.
The operation of the chip microcomputer 27 is controlled to supply power to the whole from the battery 17, and further, the whole power is supplied from the button battery 29 instead of the battery 17 in the power saving mode.

(1-2) Software Configuration FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the software configuration of the four-legged robot apparatus 1 in layers, and FIG. 4 shows the software configuration in the tire type in comparison with FIG. FIG. In this software configuration, the lowest layer is a device driver layer, in which various device drivers are arranged. Here, the device driver is the sensor and actuator of the mobile unit 3 and the head 2A.
Various types of information are input / output to / from various types of robot device components arranged at the same location, and software objects for these processes are provided.

The battery manager device driver (battery manager DD) is a power supply unit 14
The remaining amount of the battery 17 is detected by data communication with the one-chip microcomputer 27, and is periodically notified to a higher-order robot system software. In addition, the clock of the central processing unit 22 and the like is managed, the frequency of this clock is reduced according to instructions from the robot system software, and unnecessary device operations are stopped, thereby reducing the overall power consumption.

The robot serial bus device driver (robot serial bus DD) communicates with the serial bus master control hardware provided in the main body 2 by data communication with the mobile unit 3 connected to the serial bus. The sensor information and the like are taken in and notified to the higher-order robot system software, and conversely, control data of the actuator, audio signals and the like output from the robot system software are sent to each device.

When the system is started, the robot serial bus device driver detects a change (addition or deletion) of a device connected to the serial bus. Further, by taking in the device-specific information related to this change, information indicating the current form of the robot apparatus 1 is output to the robot system software.

Above this device driver layer,
Robot system software is deployed. Here, the robot system software is a virtual robot,
It is composed of software objects such as a design robot, power manager, and object manager.

The virtual robot converts data in a format unique to each device into a general format of the robot apparatus in data communication with the robot serial bus device driver, and transmits and receives the data. Specifically, for example, for data for motor control,
In the device-specific format, the sensor output, which is a potentiometer, is represented by 10 bits obtained by analog-to-digital conversion. On the other hand, in the virtual robot, the least significant 1 bit of the data represented by this representation is 0.001 degrees. The data is converted into the data shown in FIG. Further, the virtual robot outputs image data obtained from the television camera 6, for example, to higher-level software, in addition to sending and receiving data by such format conversion.

Further, the virtual robot receives information indicating the current form of the robot apparatus 1 from the robot serial bus device driver, and collects this information. This allows the virtual robot to use the robot device 1
Connection information (CPC (Configura) that indicates what kind of robot components are connected in what order
ble Physical Component) Connection Information) and manages this connection information (CPC Connection Information)
To the design robot.

When a change is made to a device connected to the serial bus, the virtual robot receives a notification from the robot serial bus device driver of the device driver and notifies the design robot.

The design robot receives the connection information (CPC Connection Information) from the virtual robot and sequentially compares it with the pre-recorded connection template information to select a template suitable for the current form of the robot apparatus 1. In addition, the design robot
The object manager is instructed to update the higher-level form-dependent software to form-dependent software suitable for the current form according to the selected template.

In this embodiment, the combined template information is described as design data in a design file.

The object manager updates the form-dependent software to the form-dependent software suitable for the current form by using the object notified by the design robot and information on the combination of the objects according to the instruction of the design robot. That is, the object manager instructs to stop the operation, disconnect the inter-object communication, destroy the object, and release the resources for all the objects constituting the form-dependent software. Loads and initializes new required objects, and builds connections for inter-object communication,
Instruct the activation of these objects. Here,
The connection between objects means a connection for transmitting and receiving data between objects.

The power manager communicates data with the battery manager device driver, instructs the battery manager device driver to switch the clock in accordance with the instruction of the higher-level software (form independent software or form dependent software), Instructs to stop the operation.

Form-dependent software is arranged above the robot system software, and form-independent software is arranged further above the robot system software. The form-dependent software is software that is changed in accordance with the form of the robot apparatus 1, and the form-independent software, on the contrary, is a higher-ranking apparatus of the robot apparatus 1 that is fixed regardless of the form of the robot apparatus. Software. For this reason, various objects depending on the form of the robot apparatus 1 exist in the form-dependent software. In this embodiment, 4
Software suitable for the form of each of the last type and the tire type can be easily configured as a whole.

That is, in a quadruped type, this form-dependent software (FIG. 3) is composed of objects such as a command converter, a motion network, a motion replay, a walking pattern generator, and a vision as related to the mobile unit 3.

The command converter converts commands from the form-independent software that does not depend on the form into the robot apparatus 1.
Into a command suitable for the form. That is, commands relating to the mobile unit 3 from the form-independent software include sleep (Sleep), rest (Rest), and wake-up (W
When commands for instructing the akeup) and the movement (Move) are input, the command converter converts these commands into sleep (Sleeping) for each of the four legs.
Sitting, Standing, Walking
g) is converted into a command to indicate each posture.

The motion network activates the method (entry) of the object corresponding to the arrow in the transition diagram according to the transition shown in FIG. 5 from the commands indicating the postures output from the command converter. That is, when a walking command is input in the sleeping state, the corresponding entries of the motion replay object are sequentially activated so that the sitting, standing, walking, and posture are sequentially changed. In this case, when reaching the last walking state, the entry of the walking pattern generator corresponding to the self-loop indicating this state is started.

In the motion replay, when a motion network activates an entry, a corresponding joint angle command value for posture change is output. Specifically, the motion replay holds a registered discrete joint angle command value as key data, and outputs a series of angle command values by an interpolation operation using the key data.

The walking pattern generator calculates and outputs each joint angle command value so as to move in the direction specified by the form-independent software.

The vision is, for example, an object for image processing. The vision receives image data obtained by the television camera 6 from the virtual robot object and processes it. The vision thereby identifies, for example, a red object, and detects and outputs the position and apparent size of the red object with respect to the robot device 1.

On the other hand, in the case of the tire type, the form-dependent software (FIG. 4) includes, as objects relating to the mobile unit 3, objects of a vision common to the quadruple type, a command converter specific to the tire type, a motion commander, and a motion. Replay 2 has a wheel pattern generator object.

Among them, the command converter, like the quadruple type command converter, transmits commands from the form-independent software that does not depend on the form, to the robot apparatus 1.
Into a command suitable for the form. In this case, since the robot device 1 is of a tire type, the command converters respectively perform sleep (Sleep) and break (Res).
t), commands for instructing the posture of wake-up (Wakeup) and movement (Move) are converted into commands of sleeping (Sleeping), rest (Rest), standby (Ready), and movement (Go).

The motion commander receives the output of the command converter and generates a joint angle command value associated with a tire control command. That is, when a command of “Sleeping” is input, the motion commander sets the joint angle command value to “neutral”. Here, in the neutral state, the motor is not driven or braked at all, so that the arms constituting the moving unit are held in a hanging state, and the tires are stopped in the stopped state. Is held.

On the other hand, when a rest (Rest) command is input, the motion commander bends 90 degrees at the elbows of both arms and extends forward, and the motion commander is attached to the head 2A. Then, a joint angle command value is generated so that the face is turned to the front. Note that the tires are still stopped.

When a command of "Ready" is input, the motion commander extends the elbow of both arms and extends forward, and faces the front of the head 2A. Is generated as described above. In this case, the tires are still stopped. further,
In the case of the move (Go) command, a command value is output so that the tire rotates in the forward direction while holding both arms similarly to the state of the standby (Ready).

The motion replay 2 controls the operation other than the tire (for example, the operation of both arms) with respect to the operation specific to the tire type in accordance with the instruction of the motion commander.
The wheel pattern generator generates tire control information under the control of the motion commander.

The form-independent software is the robot device 1
Is software that does not depend on the form, and has a form setting object and the like. Where the configuration object is
The information which does not depend on the form of the robot apparatus 1 is received from the form-dependent software.
A command (such as sleep) indicating the posture of the robot device 1 as described above, which does not depend on the form, is output to the form-dependent software.

That is, for example, if the presence of a red object is not detected for one minute or more based on the presence / absence of the red object notified from the vision object and its position information, as shown in FIG. ), To maintain that state, to rest (Sleep) in the state of Rest, to rest (Rest) in the state of Wakeup, and to move (Move). ), Get up (Wa
Issue a command to transition to the (keup) state.

Further, a red object is detected with a size smaller than a predetermined value (a value of 10 or less according to the setting of the robot device),
If this lasts for more than 10 seconds, it will be in a state of rest in the state of sleep, in a state of wakeup in the state of rest, and in a state of wakeup. In this case, a command is issued so as to make a transition to Move, and in the case of Move, a command is issued so as to continue the move.

Further, when a red object is detected with a size equal to or larger than a predetermined value, if the red object is in the sleep state (Wak
In the state of Rest (Rest) and wake-up (Wakeup), the state transitions to (Move), and in the state of Move (Move), the state continues to move (Move). Issue a command to

Thus, in the robot apparatus 1, the highest-order software is formed so as not to depend on the form, and data is transmitted to and received from software that does not depend on the form in a form-independent manner. . Thus, in the robot apparatus 1, only the form-dependent software, which is software depending on the form, is changed according to the form, and the software can be easily changed according to the form.

(1-3) Change of form-dependent software In the robot apparatus 1, this form-dependent software is updated by the processing of the object manager according to the instruction of the design robot. At this time, the form-dependent software is updated by loading and unloading the objects constituting the form-dependent software and reconstructing the connection for inter-object communication.

For this reason, the design robot receives a notification of connection information (CPC Connection Information) for specifying the form of the robot apparatus 1 from the virtual robot, and based on the connection information (CPC Connection Information), notifies the object manager of the form-dependent software. Instruct update and provide necessary information.

In the virtual robot, information of each device connected to the serial bus is obtained via a robot serial bus device driver, which is a lower layer, and connection information (CPC Connection Informati) is obtained from this information.
on) and notify the design robot.

Therefore, in this robot device 1,
Predetermined information is recorded in the memory of each robot component, and information of a device connected to the serial bus in the virtual robot 1 can be acquired together with its position information by data communication executed via a robot serial bus device driver. It has been done.

Here, in the robot apparatus 1, a television camera, a speaker, a microphone, various actuators, sensors, and the like connected to the serial bus are basic components (CPC Primitives), and these are set in a link state. Each component (CPC Model) is composed of a plurality of combinations of basic components. That is, for example, one foot as a component is configured by a specific link state of a plurality of basic components by three motors and one switch.

In the robot apparatus 1, unique identification data is assigned to each of these parts, and each of the components connected to the serial bus can be specified by the identification data. This identification data is composed of the ID of the manufacturing factory that created the component and the ID corresponding to the product number. In addition, information of each component, position information of each component in the component is set by link information of each component in the component, attribute information of each component, etc. so as to correspond to the identification data. Are stored in the memory of each component together with the identification data of each component. In this embodiment, when the memory capacity is small on the part side, only the identification data is recorded on each part side, and the information on the constituent elements and the position information on the constituent elements in the parts are held on the main body 2 side. It has been made like that.

When the virtual robot starts the system,
When the device is changed, the serial data in the tree structure is sequentially traced by the identification data and the position information notified from the robot serial bus device driver to connect each basic component (CPC Primitive) and each component. The connection information (CPC Connec
Creation Information) and notify the design robot. In this connection, the connection information (CPC Connection Information) notified from the virtual robot includes component information (CPC Primitive Loca) corresponding to the form.
Information).

The design robot communicates with the connection information (CPC Connection Informatio) notified by the virtual robot.
By referring to the design file on the basis of n), a combined template (a label to be described later) corresponding to the current form of the robot apparatus 1 is selected. Further, the design robot instructs the object manager to update the form-dependent software suitable for the current form according to the selected template.

Here, the design file is a description in a text data format, and for each form of the robot device 1, component element information (CPC Primitive Location Informa) of each part.
Option) group is described with a label attached. Also,
Component information (CPC Primitive Location Information)
Is composed of basic components (CPC Primitive) of each component and position information (CPC Coordinate Locator) of each component. Location information (CPC Coordinate Locat
or) is a coordinate from a reference position set in the robot apparatus 1, is represented by a general link coordinate system, and is configured by a cascade connection of a rotation matrix for coordinate system conversion and a position vector. ing.

The label is used to specify a corresponding object, to load this object, and to specify data required for establishing communication between objects. The label is a design label or a general-purpose label as compared with the design label. Virtual labels (Virt
ual Label), a composite label (C) of a design label (Design Label) and a virtual label (Virtual Label).
omposite Label) applies. Note that the visual label is used by the design robot after being replaced with the design label.

The following equation shows the description of the design label. The design label contains one or more component information (CPC Primitive Location Information),
Or, it is constituted by a design label (Design Label).

[0072]

(Equation 1)

On the other hand, the following expression shows the description of a virtual label. The virtual label includes a design label (Design Label), a component (CPC Primitive), and position information (CPC Coordinate Locator) of the component (CPC Primitive).

[0074]

(Equation 2)

On the other hand, the following equation shows a composite type label (Co
mposite Label).

[0076]

(Equation 3)

In this way, the design robot sends the component information (CPC Primitive Location Inf) specified by the notified connection information (CPC Connection Information).
location information (CPC Coordi)
nate Locator) and the position information (CPCCo) defined in the virtual label (Virtual Label) on the tip side of the tree structure.
ordinate Locator), this virtual label (Virtual Label) is designated as a design label (Design Label
l), and the design label (Design Label) thus defined is set as valid.

With these, the connection information (CPC Connection
Information), this design file is accessed so that the current robot device type (four-leg type, tire type, etc.) can be specified, and various data necessary for updating the type-dependent software can be obtained. Has been made.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart specifically showing the processing procedure of the design robot. The design robot uses the connection information (CPC Connecti
on Information), the process proceeds from step SP1 to step SP2, and the connection information (CPC Connection
Information) to access the design file,
Thus, the current form of the robot device 1 is specified.

Subsequently, the design robot proceeds to step SP
3 and the component information (CPCPrimitive Location Information) based on the connection information (CPC Connection Information) notified from the virtual robot and the connection information (CPC Connection Informa) held in the design file
Component Information (CPC Primitive Location I)
nformation).

Subsequently, the design robot proceeds to step SP
Then, based on the result of the comparison, the design file is accessed, and an object corresponding to the current form and a design label for specifying data necessary for reconstructing communication between the objects are detected.

Subsequently, the design robot proceeds to step SP
Then, the process proceeds to step 5 where the connection file (Connection File) is accessed from the detected design label, and the connection information (Connection Data) corresponding to the label is detected.
Acquisition of data necessary for specifying the corresponding object and reconstructing communication between objects. Thus, a connection file is a file in which connection information (Connection Data) is recorded in correspondence with a label, and the connection information (Connection Data) is used for specifying a corresponding object and reconstructing communication between objects. Necessary data.

Subsequently, the design robot proceeds to step SP
6, the connection information (Connection Data) is sent to the object manager, thereby instructing the update of the form-dependent software. After that, the flow proceeds to step SP7 to end the processing procedure.

FIG. 8 is a chart showing a description of a part of the design file. In this design file, DRX
Indicates the form of the robot device 1 and 4 Legged indicates
This is a description indicating that it is a quadruped type. Head,
RightFrontLeg, LeftFrontLeg, RightRearLeg, LeftRea
rLeg indicates the head, right forefoot, left forefoot, right hindpaw, and left hindpaw, respectively, whereby in the first sentence the four-legged form is represented by The configuration is specified.

Wheel in the second sentence indicates a tire type, and in comparison with the first sentence, the tire type in the second sentence is composed of a head, a right front foot, a left front foot, a right rear wheel, and a left rear wheel. Is specified. In the third sentence, the arrangement of the camera link is described on the head, and in the fourth sentence, the virtual label (Virtual Label) of this camera link is described. Position information (CPC Coordinate Loc)
ator) is described in a tree format.

FIG. 9 shows the connection information (CPC Conn
2 is a chart showing a part of the description of the section information (section information).
The connection information is described in a text data format as in the case of the design file. In this description, “joint” indicates an interface, and indicates that this portion is a connection point with another component. In this case, the description from the second line to the fifth line indicates that CO, CO, CO, CO, CO
It can be seen that the television camera is connected via five hubs and the like.

As a result, the connection information (CPC Connection Information) according to the example of FIG. 9 matches the quadruped type described in FIG.

On the other hand, the following equation is used for the connection file (Conn
3 is a table showing a part of the description of the section file (section file). The connection file is described in a text data format. In this description, the first sentence and the second sentence are used to construct the object corresponding to the foot and the tire in the quadruple type and the tire type, respectively, and the communication between the objects in the object. Required data is described.

That is, in the first sentence, as the service name, the object name MONet and the data format MONetOu
The description of tData and S indicating the subject is described. Furthermore, MO which is an object name as a similar service name
NetReplay, data format MONetOutData, and the like are described, and finally, a description of O indicating an observer is assigned. In the following lines, similar subjects, observers, data formats, and the like are described.

[0090]

(Equation 4)

As a result, in the case of the example of FIG. 8, the design robot extracts the connection information (Connection Data) (the description in parentheses after DRX 4 Legged) from the description of the first sentence by this DRX 4 Legged, and sends it to the object manager. Notification, thereby updating the form-dependent software.

FIG. 10 is a time chart showing a boot process in the object manager, the virtual robot, and the design robot. When the power is turned on or reset, the robot apparatus 1 starts a boot process. At this time, in the robot apparatus 1, each object is loaded from a file to construct form-dependent software, and at this time, internal variables of each object manager are initialized.

Subsequently, a do-initialization (DoInit) is sent to each object from the object manager.
By this do-initialization (DoInit), an entry for entry of each object is registered in the object manager or the like. Thus, communication between the objects is established in the robot system software layer.

Subsequently, a do start (DoStart) is sequentially sent from the object manager to the virtual robot and the design robot, and the virtual robot and the design robot start operating. This allows the virtual robot to connect information (CPC Connection Information)
Is generated, and the connection information (CPC Connection Information) is passed to the design robot at the request of the design robot, and connection information (Connection Data) is generated. Further, the connection information (Connection Data) is passed to the object manager, and the connection information (Connecti
on Data) builds the form-dependent software.

On the other hand, in the shutdown,
The object manager sends a do stop (DoStop) to each object, and this do stop (DoSto)
According to p), each object is notified of an error for all requests and stops its operation. Object Manager, RedDestro (DoDestro
y) is sent to each object, whereby each object releases its used source, deletes the entry registered in the object manager, and waits.

Thus, the robot apparatus 1 can be operated by software suitable for the changed mode even when the robot apparatus 1 is started with its mode changed.

On the other hand, a so-called plug-in (Plug-I
n), in the plug-out (Plug-Out), as shown in FIG. 11, a do-stop (DoStop) is sent from the object manager to each object. An error is notified to and operation stops.

Subsequently, a do start (DoStart) is sequentially sent from the object manager to the virtual robot and the design robot in the same manner as at the time of booting, and the connection information (CPC Connection Infor) is transmitted by the virtual robot.
mation) is generated and this connection information (CPC Connection I
nformation) is passed to the design robot to generate connection information (Connection Data).
ction Data) builds form-dependent software.

Thus, even if the robot apparatus 1 is dynamically changed in form by plug-in (Plug-In) or plug-out (Plug-0ut), the robot apparatus 1 can be operated by software suitable for the changed form. It has been made like that.

When the battery 17 is exhausted or the like, a plug-in (Plug-In) and a plug-out (Plug-Ou)
As in the case of t), the processing of do-stop (DoStop) and do-start (DoStart) is repeated, so that when the battery 17 is exhausted, the clock frequency is reduced and unnecessary device operation is performed. Is stopped and the state is changed to operate with the button battery 29. Conversely, when the charged battery 17 is mounted, the clock frequency is increased and the operation of each device is started. It is operated by the battery 17.

(1-4) Object Manager Processing The object manager reconfigures the objects constituting the form-dependent software based on the notification from the design robot executed in this way, and updates the form-dependent software. Specifically, the object manager loads and unloads the objects according to the notification from the design robot, reconstructs the communication between the objects so as to correspond to the unloading and loading, and thereby changes the form-dependent software.

In constructing this inter-object communication,
If the corresponding object name or the like must be registered in the object, the independence of each object is impaired, and it is necessary to prepare a plurality of types of objects so as to correspond to a free form. For this reason, in this embodiment, the object manager outputs connection information (Connection Data) output from the design robot.
To establish communication between objects, thereby ensuring the independence of the objects.

The present invention relates to an object group consisting of an object group of the robot device 1 (target board or target system) constructed by inter-object communication and an object of the robot device 1 loaded into a personal computer for program creation or the like. It is characterized by enabling data communication by inter-communication. As will be described in detail later, when the robot apparatus 1 and the personal computer are connected by wireless or wired communication means, inter-object communication is enabled by the respective gateway objects, so that the robot apparatus 1 An inter-object communication between the object and the object on the personal computer is established.

Hereinafter, the inter-object communication will be specifically described. In the following description, the description is simplified by avoiding the specification of the object name. That is, for example, the following description is applicable to the communication between objects in the robot device 1. This is applicable to inter-object communication between (gateway objects to be described later). The communication between the objects is executed asynchronously.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram showing a basic configuration of inter-object communication between two objects according to this embodiment. In this embodiment, inter-object communication is performed using Ready and Notify, so that data exceeding the processing capability of the object (Object B in this example) is not sent. I have.

That is, in FIG. 12, the object A sends data from the class 0 subject that is a member of the object A to the 0 observer class that is a member of the object B, whereby the method of the object B is changed to the invok ( invoke). Here, the subject and the observer constitute a so-called proxy program in the object to which the subject and the observer belong.

In this relation, the subject sends data only when a ready signal is sent from the observer. Note that the ready signal needs to be sent once for each data. Accordingly, in the object B on the rear observer side,
It is configured to wait for the completion of the processing of the received data and receive the subsequent data.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing a basic configuration of inter-object communication in the multi-observer.
In this case, the object A as a subject can distribute data to all observers, and can distribute data only to a specific observer specified by the object ID. In this embodiment, even in such a multi-observer state, data is transmitted to the corresponding observer by a Ready signal.

In each object, by specifying an object ID for specifying the object and a selector number (method number) for specifying the method, the corresponding method is started (entry) and the observer is started. And transmits the desired data.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram showing a basic configuration of communication between objects in a so-called multi-subject. In this case, objects A and B are subjects and object C is an observer. The observer can receive data from a plurality of subjects as described above, and a method for processing data every time data is received is called invok (invok).
e) is to be made. The observer also
A ready signal is transmitted only to a specific subject specified by the subject ID so that desired data can be selectively input.

In this embodiment, at least the objects to which the form-dependent software layer belongs, as described with reference to FIGS. Communication is performed, and if necessary, other objects can be connected in a multi-observer / multi-subject connection form. That is, an object having a plurality of observers has a number of connect entries corresponding to the plurality of observers.

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the object manager and each object. In each object, data is exchanged by specifying a method by an object ID and a selector number (Selector).
Regardless of the corresponding subject and observer, selector numbers 0 to 3 are assigned to basic methods, respectively.

Here, the selector number 0 is assigned a do-initialization (DoInit).
The initialization is performed by starting the DoInit. Further, a do start (DoStart) is assigned to the selector number 1, and each object starts operating when the do start (DoStart) is started. Further, a do-stop (DoStop) is assigned to the selector number 2, and the operation of each object is stopped by activating the do-stop (DoStop). Also,
The selector number 2 is assigned a DoDestroy, and each object releases resources by the DoDestroy.

Further, in response to requests from these object managers and requests from other objects, each object is notified of a service name, a selector number, and the like by the observer by a return value as appropriate.

Thus, based on the connection information (Connection Data) notified from the design robot, after the object manager loads and unloads the object, the inter-object communication can be reconstructed.

The following equation shows connection information (Connection Data) notified from the design robot.
The service name of the subject and the service name of the observer are described in text data format, separated by a colon. In this case, on the subject side, the description of the object name FooB, the data format Image, the name RightCamera by the corresponding component name, and the description S of the subject are described as the service name. On the observer side, the object name FooA, data format Im
The description of age, the name RightCamera by the corresponding component name, and O indicating the observer is described as a service name.

[0117]

(Equation 5)

In the object manager, when the object is loaded, the connection information (Connection
Data), the name of the object to be loaded is detected.

Further, the object manager secures a stack memory (Stack) and a heap memory (heap), and loads an object having the detected object name from a predetermined file. At this time, the object manager operates the operating system (OS, Operation Sy
An object ID is obtained from the stem and the object ID is recorded together with the object name described in the connection information (Connection Data).

Thus, the object manager executes the following processing such as do-initialization (DoInit), do-connect (DoConnect), and do-start (DoStart) using the object ID registered in this way. I have.

That is, do initialization (DoInit)
In, based on the acquired object ID and the above-described selector number, the object manager calls DoInit for all the objects acquired by loading the objects. For each object, this do-initialization (Do
Init) initializes internal variables and the like, and thereby initializes each object in the object manager.

In the initialization process, the object manager receives an entry (Control) as a subject of each object and an entry (Connec
Register t). Note that this registration is performed using the connection information (Connect
The data is composed of the name of the object, the subject, and the name of the object corresponding to the description of the subject and the object in the ion data.

On the other hand, do connect (DoConnect)
, The object manager assigns the subject ID (object ID) and the entry (Control) of the subject to be registered to the entry (Connect) of each object having the observer based on the registration in the do-initialization (DoInit). Notice. As a result, the notified subject ID and entry (Cont.
rol), the corresponding subject is called, and an entry (Notify) is registered here. Also, Ready is returned to the observer from the subject for which connection registration has been requested, and the observer is combined with the corresponding subject.

In constructing inter-object communication between the observer and the subject in this way, in the object manager, the connection information (Connection Dat
The observer notified in a) is notified of the subject ID (object ID) and entry (Control) of the corresponding subject. As a result, each object can be developed without explicitly indicating an object to be combined, and if necessary, can be combined with various objects by the instruction of the object manager. It is designed to ensure a higher level of independence.

At this time, by constructing inter-object communication according to the connection information (Connection Data) by the object manager, the form-dependent software can be updated easily and freely, and the software can be easily changed to suit the form. It has been done.

On the other hand, in DoStart, the object manager assigns DoStart (DoStar) to each object by the selector number 1 described above.
t). When each object has an observer, the object sends Ready to the subject by using the subject ID and entry (Ready) acquired by DoConnect, and the data can be received from the corresponding subject. In the form-dependent software, the operation is started.

That is, in the case of a subject by a multi-observer, for example, data that is a sensor output is notified to the observer that sends out a ready signal among the registered observers, and the observer receives the received data. When the data processing is completed and the next data can be received, Ready is sent out.

On the other hand, in the case of the shutdown, plug-in, plug-out, and state change described above, connection information (Connection Data) notified from the design robot.
In this case, the object manager sends a do-stop (DoStop) to each object by the selector number 2 described above because the content is different from the content registered and sent from the design robot before. In this case, the entry (Ready) is released from the observer.

[0129] Also, DoDisconnec
At t), the object manager cuts off the communication connection between the subject and the observer. In this case, the object manager responds to the observer entry (Connect) with a DoDisconnec connection.
By sending the message of t), the observer issues a request to remove the entry (Control) (Remove Observer) to the corresponding subject, thereby cutting off the communication connection.

On the other hand, DoDestro
In y), the object manager sends DoDestroy to the corresponding object by the selector number 3 described above, thereby destroying this object. At this time, in this object, the registration performed by DoInit is canceled.

Object unload (Object Unloa
In d), the object manager releases the area of the stack memory and the heap memory for the object destroyed by DoDestroy, and unloads this object. Further, the subject ID and subject name registered at the time of loading are deleted.

When the object manager receives, for example, connection information (Connection Data) from the design robot under these controls, the object manager executes control up to DoStart according to the sequence shown in FIG.

That is, the object manager is activated when connection information (Connection Data) is sent by a message, and loads, for example, the object A and the object B described in the connection information. Here, the object A and the object B are loaded by a system instruction of the operation system. At this time, the object manager acquires and registers the object IDs of the objects A and B.

Subsequently, the object manager activates DoInit of the objects A and B with the obtained observer ID and selector number 0 as described above, and thereby the re-objects A and B
Then, an entry (Control) as a subject and an entry (Connect) as an object are acquired and registered.

Subsequently, the doConnect (DoConnect) of the object A, which is an observer, is activated using the registered entry (Connect), and the object A, which is a subject, is connected to the object A. In this manner, communication between objects is established based on the connection information (Connection Data), and the object manager subsequently performs DoStart of the objects A and B.
Start

FIG. 17 shows this do start (DoStart).
6 is a time chart showing a subsequent sequence. When the objects A, B, and other objects are activated by DoStart of the object manager, these objects execute inter-object communication using the above-mentioned Ready and Notify. I do.

That is, in this case, upon activation, the object A sends a ready message to the ready entry of the object B, and the object B
The data and the like are sent from the object B to the object A by the Notify entry of the object A according to (1). If a message has not yet been sent from the object A to the ready entry of the object B during the processing of this data, the notifying of the object A by the object B (No.
tify) entry is registered, and data and the like are transmitted by a ready (Ready) entry of the object B by the object A. As a result, in this inter-object communication, transmission of data exceeding the data processing capability of the object A is prevented.

FIG. 18 is a time chart showing a sequence in plug-in, plug-out, and state change. If the connection information (Connection Data) notified by the design robot is different from the registered content sent from the design robot before, the object manager sends a DoStop to all objects and sends all objects Stop the operation of. In this case, in each of the objects A and B, the entry (Re
By canceling ady), its own notify entry will not be activated thereafter.

[0139] Do stop of all objects (DoSt
op) is completed, the object manager, in this case, assigns a DoDisconne
ct), the object A is separated from other objects, and then DoDestroy of the object A is started. This allows re-object A
Free up resources and re-initialize (DoIni
The registration of the object B executed in t) is canceled.

When DoDestroy for a required object ends, the object manager executes unloading by a system instruction of the operation system. Note that the required object
destructor is called, in this case the object A
When the destructor is called, the registration of the object A executed at the time of loading is canceled. Further, the object manager releases the stack memory and the heap memory, thereby completing the unloading of the object A.

Then, the object manager instructs the loading of the object C in accordance with the connection information (Connection Data), and sequentially performs the initialization (DoInit) and the deconnect (DoCoCo) in the same manner as described above with reference to FIG.
nnect), start DoStart. Thus, in this case, the configuration of the objects A and B is changed to the configuration of the objects B and C during the operation without compiling.

The inter-object communication and the like have been described above with reference to FIGS. Next, a network system according to the present invention, which is a main part of the embodiment, will be described. The network system to which the present invention is applied enables the software of a robot device connected to a remote system (for example, a system in which a terminal is a personal computer) to be changed on a network, and the like. This is a network system on the premise that the robot apparatus 1 is connected to a remote system.

FIG. 19 shows a configuration example of a network system to which the present invention is applied. This network system is constructed as a local area network. In this network system, the remote system 30 is a system having a personal computer 32 or a workstation 33 as a terminal, and the robot apparatus 1 provides a means for communicating with the network. It is a robot device equipped with. And the robot apparatus 1
PC for wireless LAN as adapter for network communication
The remote system 30 includes a network adapter 31 for communicating with the robot apparatus 1. In a network system, TCP / IP (Transmis- sion), which is a protocol for network communication, is used.
The communication between the remote system 30 and the robot apparatus 1 is performed by adopting the Ssion Control Protocol / Internet Protocol). Thus, the IP address is given to the robot device 1 so that the robot device 1 can communicate with the personal computer 32 on the network system. By constructing a network system that enables communication with the robot device 1 in this manner, the robot device 1 is handled as a machine (electronic device) on a wireless LAN (local area network).

The robot device 1 includes at least a PC card I / F 42, a flash ROM 43, a DRAM 44, and a CPU 45, as shown in FIG. The PC card I / F 42 is an interface for the wireless LAN PC card 41 and has a flash ROM
The 43 and the DRAM 44 are storage means for storing various information handled by the robot device 1, and the CPU 45 is a control means for controlling each part of the robot device 1. For example, the CPU 45 may operate the central processing unit 22 shown in FIG.
Is supported. FIG. 19 shows three robot devices 1. Each of the robot devices 1 has such a configuration.

As will be described in detail later, such a network system allows the development side of the robot apparatus 1 to develop an object of the robot apparatus 1 while the robot apparatus 1 is connected to the network. Further, on the user side, the internal state of the robot device 1 on the network can be monitored by the personal computer 32 or the like.

In the above-described example, the robot apparatus 1 is connected to the network system by the wireless LAN. However, it is desirable that a computer that moves around like the robot apparatus 1 has no physical connection. For this reason, the communication is not limited to the wireless communication. For example, the robot device 1 and the personal computer 32 can communicate with each other by wire.

FIG. 20 shows a configuration example of the robot apparatus 1 and the remote system 30 which enable communication in the above-described network system.

The robot apparatus 1 includes a wireless LAN PC card 41, a device driver 46, a TC
The remote system 30 includes a P / IP protocol stack 47 and a TCP gateway 48, and the remote system 30 includes a network adapter 31, a device driver 51, and a TCP gateway 52 as communication parts.

[0149] Robot apparatus 1 and remote system 30
Both have a network adapter in the lowermost layer, and the wireless LAN PC card 41 as hardware in the robot apparatus 1 and the network adapter 31 in the remote system 30 constitute the network adapter.

Here, the wireless LAN PC card 41 (for example, including the PC card I / F) of the robot apparatus 1 as the first electronic apparatus is used for the information processing process (object) of the robot apparatus 1. A first communication means having an information processing process (gateway object 48) for transmitting and receiving data by means of
A network adapter 31 connected to a personal computer 32 (remote system 30), which is an electronic device of the present invention, transmits and receives data to and from an information processing process (object) on the personal computer 32 (a gateway object 52). (Assigned) as the second communication means. Then, in the network system, a wireless LAN PC
When the card 41 and the network adapter 31 are connected wirelessly or by wire, the wireless LAN PC card 4
By performing inter-process communication (inter-object communication) between the information processing process (gateway object 48) for transmitting and receiving data of the first data and the information processing process (gateway object 52) for transmitting and receiving data of the network adapter 31 Communication between processes (communication between objects) is performed between the information processing process of the robot apparatus 1 and the information processing process of the personal computer 32.

A TCP / I which is frequently used in network communication between an information processing process for transmitting and receiving data of the wireless LAN PC card 41 and an information processing process for transmitting and receiving data of the personal computer 32 is used.
Data communication using the data communication method of P is performed.

The robot apparatus 1 and the remote system 30
Are device drivers 4 above the wireless LAN PC card 41 and the network adapter 31.
6,51.

The device drivers 46 and 51 are provided for the wireless LAN PC card 4 which is an adapter for each network.
1 and software for controlling the network adapter 31.

Then, in the robot apparatus 1 and the remote system 30, the device drivers 46 and 51
It has a TCP / IP socket interface (not shown). Robot apparatus 1 and remote system 30
Then, data is input / output via a TCP / IP socket interface. For example, the robot device 1 has a protocol stack object corresponding to a socket library, and accesses by using this.

The robot object 1 and the remote system 30 serve as a gateway object (T) as an upper layer of a TCP / IP socket interface (not shown).
CP gateway) 48,52. The gateway objects 48 and 52 constitute gateways to the network. Gateway object 48,
Reference numeral 52 performs conversion between the above-described inter-object communication and the TCP / IP protocol which is a protocol for network communication.

Regarding the two gateway objects 48 and 52 in each system, one gateway object serves as a server (hereinafter, referred to as a server gateway object), and the other gateway object serves as a client (hereinafter, referred to as a client gateway object). .). For example, in consideration of the characteristics of the system, the gateway object on the remote system side that mediates the exchange with the user becomes the client gateway object, and the gateway object of the target system (robot device) becomes the server gateway object. The operation of the gateway objects 48 and 52 is specifically as follows.

The gateway objects 48 and 52 are:
port. It has a configuration file that describes the settings of the communication method called a cfg file, and this makes correspondence between the service name of the communication defined in the inter-object communication, the IP address and the port number used in the TCP / IP communication. .

FIG. 21 shows that port. An example of a cfg file (configuration file) is shown. For example, port. The cfg file describes various types of information in a text data format, and specifically describes an object name, a data name, a subject name, a port number, an IP address, and the like. Also, this port. The cfg file can be freely rewritten.

Each gateway object 48, 52
Is a relationship between the object A and the object B as shown in FIG. 12 or FIG.
A predetermined process can be performed according to a predetermined sequence. Specifically, each gateway object 48,5
2 dynamically generates an observer and a subject as a proxy program, and has a port. By linking the service name described in the cfg file with the ID of the observer or subject, registration is made with a service manager (object manager) on each system.

Further, as described above, port. The service name in the cfg file can be freely described, and each gateway object 48, 52
Is port. Executes all services so freely described in the cfg file. Thus, port. cf
By eliminating the restriction on the description of the service name in the g file, inter-object communication between any objects (the object of the robot apparatus 1 and the object of the personal computer 32) can be performed via the gateway objects 48 and 52.

Here, the service name is port. In order to correspond to the network port (IP address and port number) described in the cfg file, the ID of the observer or subject and the port number will eventually correspond.
In a gateway object existing at a different location on the network, the port. By associating the description of the cfg file, that is, by assigning the same port number to the corresponding service name of the communication between the objects, the respective gateway objects 48 and 52 of the robot apparatus 1 and the remote system 30 on the network. Of inter-object communication is taken.

When a connection request comes to an observer or a subject in the client gateway object 52 of the remote system 30, a connection (connect command) is made to the corresponding port number. Here, the target system (target board, robot device 1)
If the server gateway object 48 on the side has already been activated, the connection is established. On the other hand, if the target system has not been prepared, the connection is re-established after a few seconds and waited until the preparation is completed to establish the connection.

After the connection is established, the observer or the subject of the gateway object sends the message (Notify or Ready message) to the corresponding port every time it receives data (Notify or Ready message). Conversely, if the network port receives the data, the corresponding observer sends a Notify message, and the subject sends a Ready message.

When the connection between the systems (between the robot apparatus 1 and the remote system 30) is established as described above, the robot apparatus 1 originally connected by the network is connected.
And the remote system 30 can be handled as one system including a plurality of objects. That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 22, before connection, a system A (for example, the robot apparatus 1) including a group of objects (for example, a part of software) and another group of objects (for example, software The system B (e.g., the remote system 30) is constructed independently of each other at a boundary indicated by a dotted line in the figure, but after the connection, the connection crosses the dotted line in the figure. Is cut off, and FIG.
A virtual gateway object (for example, a set of gateway objects 48 and 52) GO as shown in FIG.
Is equivalent to connecting the object group of each system. As a result, the object of the robot apparatus 1 and the object of the remote system 30 are grasped as constituting one system,
The robot apparatus 1 is operated by the remote system 30 via the network via one virtual gateway object GO.

Therefore, the virtual gateway object (virtual gateway object) GO connects the systems (the robot apparatus 1 and the remote system 30), and all data transfer as shown in FIG. 20 is performed. The object connected to the gateway object of each system (the robot apparatus 1 and the remote system 30) performs inter-object communication with an object existing on another system without being aware of communication over the network at all. Will be able to do it.

Further, a change from the network configuration shown in FIG. 22 to the network configuration shown in FIG. 23 can be treated as being equivalent to a change in the connection between objects. The configuration can be realized by simply changing the description of a connection file for joining desired objects without the need to newly change the object code.

Even when the same code cannot be executed between the remote system 30 and the target system (robot device 1) due to a difference between the OS and the processor, the above-described framework for inter-object communication does not depend on the OS or the processor. By recompiling based on the framework implemented on the system to be executed, an executable object can be generated on the system to be executed.

With such a network system,
An object on the remote system 30 connected (communicated) to an object on the target system (robot device 1) can be changed by the remote system 30. Thus, the object can be developed (designed) on the remote system 30 in consideration of the actual state (real environment) of the target system or in real time.

After the development, the objects developed on the remote system 30 are recompiled and introduced into the robot device 1. Therefore, since the object introduced into the robot apparatus 1 is examined in a state (real environment) mounted on the robot apparatus 1 at the time of development, there is no problem, for example, without causing inconvenience with other objects. Then, the processing is executed by the robot apparatus 1. Further, since the development of the object is realized simply by connecting the virtual gateway objects, the development of the object becomes easy.

Here, regarding the contents described above, a network expansion technology applied to a predetermined standard, for example, OPEN-R, a hardware and software platform technology for an entertainment robot proposed by Sony Corporation, will be described. In this platform technology, software is componentized and executed in units of objects (corresponding to processes).

The communication protocol between objects designed based on the observer pattern of the design pattern in the object orientation is determined, and the user can specify the data structure input to the object, the service name thereof, the method for processing it, and the output. Data structure and its service name 3
One needs to be defined. The event is propagated by connecting these individually defined objects, and a series of robot systems from recognition to action are realized.

The inter-object communication has the following features. At the time of object design, only the data to be received and the data to be transmitted are defined, and the destination and the source of the message are not determined. -The mouth for sending and receiving is called a service, and each is given a unique name defined by the user. -Sending and receiving messages are performed by proxy classes OSubject and OObserber. These instances correspond one-to-one to the individual services described above. -Service-to-service connections are defined in the connection file and are notified to the OSubject and OObserber instances when the system starts. -Communication between services is asynchronous communication, and connection supports many-to-many communication. -Data flow is controlled by a Ready message indicating that data can be received. -Shared memory is used to ensure data scalability and speed up data transfer.

Next, the gateway object will be described. Wireless networks are very useful in robots because their movement is not restricted, such as sending sensor information of the robot, sending processing results, moving the robot using tools on a remote host, etc.
Various utilization methods are conceivable. It is also known to provide a framework that hides access to distributed objects on the network by hiding it on the client side proxy, but such an approach requires designing a communication object every time a new service is provided,
Writing communication code to existing objects and proxies is inefficient, resulting in poor development efficiency. Here, since the software inside the robot is described based on the programming framework of the predetermined platform technology, the definition of data between objects, the communication method, and the dependence of the communication partner are completely separated. Therefore, as described with reference to FIGS. 20 and 21, an object called a TCP gateway corresponding to an entrance / exit of a network is introduced. This object (TCP
The gateway) reads a setting file (FIG. 21) in which the correspondence between the service name of the inter-object communication and the TCP / IP port number is described, dynamically generates the service and the port, and converts the protocol of the data flowing there. (FIG. 20). The communication partner can be selected by connecting the service to the determined data port, and the communication method and the communication partner can be resolved by the TCP gateway. Only the definition needs to be determined, and the network can be easily used.

The framework of the predetermined platform technology described above is based on Unix (registered trademark) Fork (), exe
c () and functions corresponding to IPC message communication and shared memory, ie, the document "Unix Network Programming, 2nd Edition, Vol. 2, IPC: Interprocess Communication" W. Richa
If you use rd Stevens, Pearson Education, 2000, you can implement other OS than the one currently used on the robot. Here, in an executable environment prepared on Linux, objects are compatible at the source code level with the code inside the robot, so that code that can be executed on both systems is possible.

In this emulation environment, the above TC
When the P gateway object is implemented in the same manner and the port numbers of the respective TCP gateways are matched, the two systems can be symmetrically connected as shown in FIG. This allows the object in the robot to communicate with the object on the remote host in real time, so the object developer on the remote host can use the useful tools on Linux, for example, to send sensor information on the robot and commands to operate the robot. You can use it freely. Actually perform complex image recognition on the remote host and operate the robot based on the judgment result, or recompile the upper layer object of the commercialized pet program and execute it while communicating with the robot on the remote host We have confirmed that there is no inferiority between the stand-alone system and real time.

Of course, software development on a general-purpose computer such as Linux is overwhelmingly more efficient than software development of embedded devices. In addition, being able to program a robot in a development environment used around the world is a great advantage in terms of popularization.

The code developed here can be finally recompiled in a development environment for embedding, and can be made into a product package as software for a stand-alone system.

Next, application to a multi-CPU type robot will be described. The mechanism for expanding the inter-object communication as described above can also be applied to a robot system having two or more embedded CPUs. At present, the two CPUs can communicate via the so-called OPEN-R bus of the platform technology for the predetermined robot described above. By introducing a protocol conversion object for the bus communication, one of the two CPUs can be used for motion control. The communication between the group of objects and the group of thinking objects in the other can be freely defined.

As described above, by introducing a TCP object, data exchanged by inter-object communication can be made available on a network, and Unix, Linux
A programming framework of the predetermined platform technology for the robot can be realized on a general-purpose computer system such as the above, and the portability of the architecture of the platform technology can be demonstrated. A seamless object execution and development environment can be constructed between them.

Next, a specific example of a network system using a gateway object will be described. FIG. 24 shows a configuration example of robot software (software composed of a plurality of object groups) for executing a so-called soccer dog based on the framework of inter-object communication described above.

The soccer dog program is a program that causes the robot apparatus to execute a behavior like a soccer player, such as searching for a ball and kicking by approaching the ball. The soccer dog program is described to execute such an action, and software components (objects) necessary for executing the task are selected based on the description. System is newly created and formed.

The outline of the function of each object shown in FIG. 24 is as follows. VRComm 61 is an object that accesses various devices of the robot device 1 and OMPsd 6
2 is an object for processing information of the distance sensor,
The OMCdt 63 is an object that calculates the position of the ball by detecting the color. The OMTE 64 is an object that manages the posture of the neck and controls the line of sight in the direction of the ball.
S65 is an object that controls the walking motion.
Reference numeral 66 denotes an object for controlling the return from a fall.
Reference numeral 7 denotes an object that controls the tail, OMoNET 68 is an object that performs exclusive control between the motion control objects and manages posture information, and OMGsensor 69 is an object that detects the posture of the body of the robot device.
Reference numeral 70 denotes an object for managing battery information.
ccerDog71 is an object for performing an action plan in soccer. The connection of these objects is realized by a connection file for each object connection described as shown in FIGS. The connection files shown in FIGS. 25 to 27 are divided for the sake of space, and are actually described continuously in the order of FIGS. 25, 26, and 27.

A case where a SoccerDog object 70 in an existing object group having such a configuration is newly developed (in the case of a software development environment) will be described. By performing the following processing, a SoccerDog object 70 is newly developed.

All the existing objects other than the SoccerDog object 70 are left on the robot device 1 side,
Only the ccerDog object 70 is stored in the remote system 30
Take it on.

Then, in the robot apparatus 1 side, SoccerDo
Gateway object instead of g object (TCP gateway object 48 shown in FIG. 20)
And connect all services to be connected to the SoccerDog object to the gateway object. On the other hand, on the remote system 30 side, a gateway object (T shown in FIG. 20) is used instead of an existing object.
Introduce CP Gateway Object 52) to Soccer
Make all connections of the Dog object to the gateway object.

[0186] By being connected in this way, connection can be made at any time from the remote system 30 side using the gateway object of the robot apparatus 1 as a server.
Therefore, the entire system can be operated by starting up the system on the robot apparatus 1 side in advance and executing (starting) when the compilation of the SoccerDog object is completed. Thereby, an environment in which the SoccerDog object can be developed on the remote system 30 is set. That is, inter-object communication between the SoccerDog object on the remote system 30 (personal computer 32) and the object on the robot apparatus 1 is established.

SoccerDog in Remote System 30
For example, if there is a problem with the SoccerDog object, the SoccerDog object on the remote system 30 side is developed.
Stop the g object, modify it again, compile and execute, and so on. For example, Soccer
The malfunction of the Dog object is a case where the robot device 1 cannot normally execute the new operation when a new operation (for example, a new operation for kicking a ball) is developed by the SoccerDog object. ,
In such a case, the remote system 30
Stop the erDog object, fix it, recompile and rerun.

Then, when the development is finally completed after adjusting the malfunction, etc., the Soccer
The source code of the Dog object is recompiled for the environment of the target system (for the robot device 1), linked to an existing object, and an execution program for the robot device 1 is created and introduced into the robot device 1. The operation of the robot device 1 is controlled by the execution program thus introduced.

As described above, robot software for executing a soccer dog is developed by the network system to which the present invention is applied.

Therefore, in a state where the remote system 30 and the robot apparatus 1 are connected, software (SoccerDog object) is developed on the remote system 30. Therefore, it is necessary to restart the entire system on the robot apparatus 1 side. Instead, you can modify (process) the SoccerDog object. Thereby, the development of the SoccerDog object can be performed efficiently.

Further, since the software is developed without downloading the program to the robot apparatus 1, the development can be performed efficiently. And
In the remote system 30 (personal computer 32) as a terminal, general-purpose programs such as a debugger and a profiler used as the conventional remote system (personal computer 32) can be used. Can be developed.

The above example is an example as a development environment.
Next, regarding a usage example on the user side, for example, the user communicates with the robot apparatus 1 via a personal computer or the like to observe the internal state of the robot apparatus 1 or sends a command to the robot apparatus 1. Explain the case of creating a fun program.

Normally, in order to realize such a function, in addition to creating a program on the personal computer side, for example, a module (object) for calculating the emotions of the robot apparatus 1 on the robot apparatus 1 side is used. It is necessary to add a code for transmitting emotion data to the computer 32, or to add a code for receiving data from the personal computer 32 to an object that receives and executes an operation command (an object on the robot apparatus 1 side). .

On the other hand, in the network system to which the present invention is applied, as described above, each software module (object) is operated based on the framework for communication between objects, and the gateway object for relaying network communication is used. Can be introduced, by simply rewriting the connection file and connecting the emotion output and the operation command reception service of the existing robot apparatus 1 to the gateway object, the object between the personal computer 32 and the object between the robot apparatus 1 can be obtained. Inter-communication is established, and processing is performed on each object.

As a result, a new program can be developed on the personal computer 32 without changing a program incorporated in the existing robot device 1. For example, this allows the user to operate the robot apparatus 1 via the personal computer 32 or the like.
To observe the internal state of the robot apparatus 1 (externally output the processing state of the object), send a command to the robot apparatus 1, and New features can be added.

The following effects can be obtained by constructing a network by applying the present invention as described above.

A developer of a program (software) for a robot system (robot device) can develop on a more convenient remote system.

Further, unlike the simulator, etc., the development can be performed by actually operating the robot apparatus 1, so that the developer does not have to worry about the difference between the real environment and the simulator environment. In other words, it is difficult to set a simulator environment that mimics the real environment, but a developer can develop a program without setting such a simulator environment.

Further, since the same source code is used for the source system of the target system (target board and robot device) and the source code of the remote system, the introduction work (transplantation work) accompanying the system change is simplified.
Mistakes can be reduced.

[0200] Also, by simply connecting the service of inter-object communication to the gateway object, it is possible to extend the function using the network without changing the existing robot program.

Further, since the integration of the program on the robot device with the program on the remote system is facilitated and the program can be developed on the remote system, the computer resources on the robot device 1 cannot complete the processing. Such processing can be realized with the powerful processing capability of the remote system. This enables the development of more complex programs.

The robot apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the appearance as shown in FIG. 1 described above. For example, as shown in FIG. 28, the robot device 1 can be configured to have an appearance shape closer to an animal.

[0203]

The communication apparatus according to the present invention has a first communication means having an information processing process for transmitting and receiving data to and from an information processing process of a first electronic device, and an information processing process for a second electronic device. A second communication unit having an information processing process for transmitting and receiving data to and from the process.
Then, when the first communication unit and the second communication unit are connected wirelessly or by wire, an information processing process for transmitting / receiving data of the first communication unit and data transmission / reception of the second communication unit are performed. By performing inter-process communication with the information processing process to be performed, the first process is performed by performing inter-process communication between the information processing process of the first electronic device and the information processing process of the second electronic device. In order for the inter-process communication between the information processing object of the communication means and the object of the second communication means to behave like inter-process communication on the same system, the information processing process of the first electronic device and the Communication with the information processing process of the electronic device can be handled as inter-process communication on the same system.

Further, the communication method according to the present invention includes a first communication means having an information processing process for transmitting and receiving data to and from an information processing process of the first electronic device, and an information processing process for the second electronic device. A second communication unit having an information processing process for transmitting / receiving data to / from the process is connected wirelessly or by a wire, and an information processing process for transmitting / receiving data of the first communication unit and a second communication unit. By performing inter-process communication with an information processing process that transmits and receives data, by performing inter-process communication between the information processing process of the first electronic device and the information processing process of the second electronic device The inter-process communication between the information processing object of the first communication means and the object of the second communication means is as if it were inter-process communication on the same system. To act, the information processing process of the first electronic device communication with the information processing process of the second electronic device will be able to be handled as the inter-process communication on the same system.

The information processing system according to the present invention
The electronic device controlled by the information processing process and the information processing process used to control the electronic device are fetched,
An information processing apparatus that handles the information processing process; and a communication unit that performs wireless or wired communication between the electronic device and the information processing apparatus. Then, the information processing device performs communication by a communication unit between the information processing process of the information of the electronic device and the captured information processing process when the electronic device is operated, and transmits from the information processing process of the electronic device. By using the received data and handling the imported information processing process, the information processing apparatus can handle (for example, process) an information processing process in which an electronic device in a real environment is considered.

Further, according to the program creating method of the present invention, the information processing process of the electronic device when the electronic device controlled by the information processing process is operating and the information processing process of the information processing device are performed. A program creating step of performing communication by wireless or wired communication means, and using an information processing device to transmit data from the information processing process of the electronic device to create an information processing process to be used for the electronic device; By having a program incorporation step of incorporating the information processing process created in the creating step into the electronic device, the information processing apparatus creates the information processing process in consideration of the electronic device in the real environment, and the electronic device Such an information processing process created taking into account the actual environment is incorporated and operates based on the information processing process. So as to. Since the information processing process is created in consideration of the real environment, the electronic device operates without any problem.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a robot device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a robot device.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a software structure of a quadruped;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a software structure of a tire type.

FIG. 5 is a state transition diagram showing a change in posture in a quadruped.

FIG. 6 is a table showing a relationship between an input and a state.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the design robot.

FIG. 8 is a table showing a description of a design file.

FIG. 9 is a table showing connection information.

FIG. 10 Object Manager after boot,
5 is a time chart illustrating operations of a virtual robot and a design robot.

FIG. 11 is a time chart showing operations of an object manager, a virtual robot, and a design robot in plug-in, plug-out, and the like.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating a relationship between an observer and a subject.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram illustrating a relationship between an observer and a subject in a multi-observer.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram illustrating a relationship between an observer and a subject in a multi-subject.

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram illustrating a relationship between an object manager, an observer, and a subject.

FIG. 16 is a time chart showing the operation of the object manager when the binding information is received.

FIG. 17 is a time chart showing a sequence after a do start.

FIG. 18 is a time chart showing a sequence in plug-in, plug-out, and state change.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a network system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a main part of a robot device and a remote system that constitute the network system according to the embodiment;

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing description items of a port.cfg file.

FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating a state between object groups before connection.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing a group of objects connected by a gateway object.

FIG. 24 shows Socc constituting software of a robot device.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an object group including an erDog object.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing a first half of a connection file.

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing an intermediate part of a connection file.

FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating the latter half of the connection file.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating a more specific example of a robot device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 robot device, 30 remote system, 31 network adapter, 32 personal computer,
41 PC card for wireless LAN, 48, 52 TCP gateway

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) // A63H 11/00 A63H 11/00 Z (72) Inventor Gabriel Costa 6-7 Kita Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo No. 35 Sony Corporation F-term (reference) 2C150 CA02 DA05 DA24 DA26 DA27 DA28 DF03 DF04 DF33 ED42 ED47 ED52 EF07 EF16 EF17 EF23 EF29 EF33 EF36 3C007 AS36 CS08 JS02 JS07 WA04 WA14 WC03 5B045 A02 GB02 A02 JA35 JB22 KA10 KB09 5B098 AA09 AA10 GA02 GA04 GC16

Claims (36)

[Claims] A first communication unit having an information processing process for transmitting and receiving data to and from an information processing process of the first electronic device; And a second communication unit having an information processing process to be performed. When the first communication unit and the second communication unit are connected wirelessly or by wire, the data of the first communication unit is transmitted. By performing inter-process communication between the information processing process for transmitting and receiving and the information processing process for transmitting and receiving the data of the second communication unit, the information processing process of the first electronic device and the second process are performed. A communication device wherein inter-process communication is performed with an information processing process of an electronic device. 2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said information processing process comprises a program created in an object-oriented manner. 3. The robot according to claim 2, wherein the first electronic device is a robot device whose operation is controlled by an information processing process.
The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic device is an information processing device. 4. An inter-process communication between an information processing process of the first communication unit for transmitting and receiving the data and an information processing process of the second communication unit for transmitting and receiving the data to a network communication. 2. The communication according to claim 1, wherein by performing the protocol conversion, an inter-process communication is performed between the information processing process of the first electronic device and the information processing process of the second electronic device. apparatus. 5. A transmission control protocol (TCP / IP) according to the protocol conversion to the network communication.
5. The communication device according to claim 4, wherein conversion to l / Internet Protocol is performed. 6. The information processing process for transmitting and receiving the data of the first and second communication means has a setting file in which a setting of a communication method is described, and based on the description of the setting file, 2. An inter-process communication is performed between an information processing process of the first communication unit for transmitting and receiving the data and an information processing process of the second communication unit for transmitting and receiving the data. The communication device as described. 7. The service file for inter-process communication between the information processing process of the first electronic device and the information processing process of the second electronic device is described in the setting file. An information processing process of the first and second communication means for transmitting and receiving the data; an information processing process of the first communication means for transmitting and receiving the data based on a service name described in the setting file; By performing inter-process communication between the information processing process of the second communication device and the information processing process of transmitting and receiving the data, a communication between the information processing process of the first electronic device and the information processing process of the second electronic device is performed. 7. The communication apparatus according to claim 6, wherein inter-process communication corresponding to the service name is performed. 8. The correspondence between the information processing process of the first communication unit for transmitting and receiving the data and the information processing process of the second communication unit for transmitting and receiving the data, wherein the setting file has correspondence items. The information processing process of transmitting and receiving the data of the first communication means and the information processing process of transmitting and receiving the data of the second communication means are described in the setting file. 7. The communication device according to claim 6, wherein the communication device is connected in a state in which inter-process communication can be performed based on the correspondence of the connection. 9. A first communication unit having an information processing process for transmitting and receiving data to and from an information processing process of a first electronic device, and transmitting and receiving data to and from an information processing process of a second electronic device. An information processing process for transmitting and receiving the data of the first communication unit and a transmission and reception of the data for the second communication unit are connected to a second communication unit having an information processing process to be performed by wireless or wired. By performing inter-process communication with the information processing process to be performed, inter-process communication is performed between the information processing process of the first electronic device and the information processing process of the second electronic device. Communication method to be used. 10. An electronic device controlled by an information processing process, an information processing device that fetches the information processing process used for controlling the electronic device, and handles the information processing process, the electronic device, and the information A communication unit for performing wireless or wired communication with a processing device, wherein the information processing device is configured to perform an information processing process of information of the electronic device when the electronic device is operated and the captured information process. An information processing system that performs communication by the communication unit with a process, uses the data transmitted from the information processing process of the electronic device, and handles the captured information processing process. 11. The information processing system according to claim 10, wherein said information processing process comprises a program created by object orientation. 12. The information processing system according to claim 10, wherein the information processing apparatus processes the information processing process by treating the information processing process. 13. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus handles the information processing process and externally outputs a processing state of the information processing process.
0 information processing system. 14. The first communication means having an information processing process for transmitting / receiving data to / from an information processing process of an electronic device, and the data transmitting / receiving data to / from the information processing process of the information processing apparatus. And a second communication unit having an information processing process for performing the data communication. When the first communication unit and the second communication unit are wirelessly or wiredly connected, the data of the first communication unit is provided. By performing inter-process communication between an information processing process for transmitting and receiving data and an information processing process for transmitting and receiving the data of the second communication means, the information processing process of the electronic device and the information of the information processing device are performed. 11. The information processing system according to claim 10, wherein inter-process communication is performed with a processing process. 15. An inter-process communication between an information processing process of the first communication unit for transmitting and receiving the data and an information processing process of the second communication unit for transmitting and receiving the data to the network communication. 15. The information processing system according to claim 14, wherein by performing the protocol conversion, inter-process communication is performed between the information processing process of the electronic device and the information processing process of the information processing apparatus. 16. Transmission control protocol (TCP / IP) based on the protocol conversion to the network communication.
16. The information processing system according to claim 15, wherein conversion to col / Internet Protocol is performed. 17. The information processing process for transmitting and receiving the data of the first and second communication means has a setting file in which a setting of a communication method is described, and based on the description of the setting file, 15. An inter-process communication is performed between an information processing process of the first communication unit for transmitting and receiving the data and an information processing process of the second communication unit for transmitting and receiving the data. The information processing system as described. 18. The service file for inter-process communication between the information processing process of the electronic device and the information processing process of the information processing device is described in the setting file. An information processing process of the communication means for transmitting and receiving the data is performed based on a service name described in the setting file. The information processing process of the first communication means for transmitting and receiving the data and the information processing process of the second communication means. By performing inter-process communication with the information processing process for transmitting and receiving the data, the process corresponding to the service name is performed between the information processing process of the electronic device and the information processing process of the information processing device. 18. The information processing system according to claim 17, wherein communication is performed. 19. The correspondence between the information processing process of the first communication means for transmitting and receiving the data and the information processing process of the second communication means for transmitting and receiving the data, in the setting file. The information processing process of transmitting and receiving the data of the first communication means and the information processing process of transmitting and receiving the data of the second communication means are described in the setting file. 18. A connection is made in a state where inter-process communication is possible based on the correspondence of the connection.
The information processing system as described. 20. When an electronic device controlled by an information processing process is operated, communication by wireless or wired communication means is performed between the information processing process of the electronic device and the information processing process on the information processing device. A program creating step of creating, in the information processing apparatus, an information processing process to be used for the electronic device using data transmitted from the information processing process of the electronic device; A program incorporation step of incorporating the information processing process into the electronic device. 21. The program creating method according to claim 20, wherein said information processing process comprises a program created by object orientation. 22. A first communication unit having an information processing process for transmitting and receiving data to and from the information processing process of the electronic device, and an information processing for transmitting and receiving data to and from the information processing process of the information processing device. An information processing process of transmitting and receiving the data of the first communication unit and an information processing of transmitting and receiving the data of the second communication unit by connecting the second communication unit having the process wirelessly or by wire; 21. The program creation method according to claim 20, wherein by performing inter-process communication with a process, inter-process communication is performed between an information processing process of the electronic device and an information processing process of the information processing device. Method. 23. Network communication by inter-process communication between an information processing process of the first communication means for transmitting and receiving the data and an information processing process of the second communication means for transmitting and receiving the data. 23. The program creating method according to claim 22, wherein by performing the protocol conversion, an inter-process communication is performed between the information processing process of the electronic device and the information processing process of the information processing device. 24. Transmission control protocol (TCP / IP) by converting the protocol into the network communication.
The method according to claim 23, wherein conversion to col / Internet Protocol is performed. 25. An information processing process for transmitting and receiving the data of the first and second communication means has a setting file in which a setting of a communication method is described, and based on the description of the setting file, 23. An inter-process communication is performed between an information processing process of the first communication unit for transmitting and receiving the data and an information processing process of the second communication unit for transmitting and receiving the data. The program creation method described. 26. The service file for inter-process communication between the information processing process of the electronic device and the information processing process of the information processing device is described in the setting file. An information processing process for transmitting and receiving the data of the communication unit is based on a service name described in the setting file. An information processing process for transmitting and receiving the data of the first communication unit and a communication process of the second communication unit. By performing inter-process communication with the information processing process for transmitting and receiving the data, the process corresponding to the service name is performed between the information processing process of the electronic device and the information processing process of the information processing device. 26. The method according to claim 25, wherein communication is performed. 27. Correspondence of a connection between the information processing process of the first communication means for transmitting and receiving the data and the information processing process of the second communication means for transmitting and receiving the data, in the setting file. The information processing process of transmitting and receiving the data of the first communication means and the information processing process of transmitting and receiving the data of the second communication means are described in the setting file. 26. A connection is made in a state where inter-process communication is possible based on the correspondence of connection.
The program creation method described. 28. In a network system in which a robot apparatus whose operation control program is constructed by inter-object communication and a computer system constructed by inter-object communication perform data communication via a wired or wireless connection, And a gateway object for dynamically performing protocol conversion in network communication between the robot device and the computer system. 29. The network system according to claim 28, wherein the gateway object associates a service name of communication defined in the inter-object communication with an address and a port number used in the network communication. 30. Transmission control protocol (TCP / IP) based on the protocol conversion of the network communication.
29. The network system according to claim 28, wherein conversion to L / Internet Protocol is performed. 31. A communication method in which a robot apparatus constructed with inter-object communication and a computer system constructed with inter-object communication perform data communication via a wired or wireless connection. A communication method comprising performing protocol conversion in inter-communication and network communication between the robot device and the computer system. 32. The protocol conversion is performed by a gateway object, and the gateway object associates a service name of communication defined in the inter-object communication with an address and a port number used in the network communication. Claim 31.
The communication method described. 33. Transmission control protocol (TCP / IP) based on the protocol conversion of the network communication.
32. The communication method according to claim 31, wherein conversion to I / Internet Protocol is performed. 34. A robot device in which an operation control program is constructed by inter-object communication, wherein the robot device performs data communication via a wired or wireless connection with a computer system constructed by inter-object communication. A robot apparatus comprising a gateway object for dynamically performing protocol conversion in the inter-object communication and network communication with the computer system. 35. The robot apparatus according to claim 34, wherein the gateway object associates a service name of communication defined in the inter-object communication with an address and a port number used in the network communication. 36. TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol) by protocol conversion of the network communication.
35. The robot apparatus according to claim 34, wherein conversion to l / Internet Protocol) is performed.