JP2003275981A - Communication robot system, communication robot, robot control method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem of a robot communicating with a human wherein, during communication, the progress of communication is limited, giving stress to a user. <P>SOLUTION: A database 107 has a format having a plurality of records each containing four elements, a status, a partner in communication, a type of communication and a specification of voice. A voice stored in the database 107 may simulate a conversation in the human tongue with a communication destination when the communication partner in communication established is virtually personified. A search of the database 107 searches the database 107 for a record whose elements agree with a total of three items of data, or the 'status' of a voice generating means 106 and the 'communication partner' and 'communication type' passed from a processor 103, and if any record is found, the voice specification included in the record is used as a voice to be reproduced and is reproduced by a voice synthesizing and producing device 101. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for controlling the operation of a robot, and a communication device via a network,
The present invention relates to a control system for a robot that includes a sound source device that generates voice and that communicates with a user, such as a pet robot.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the conventional robot control technology, it is common to send and receive various data by communication via a network. It takes a certain amount of time to complete communication via the network. In a robot such as a pet robot that is used for amusement, the user's enjoyment varies depending on what kind of effect the robot is to produce during this time. In a simple example, the robot may be stationary while communicating. Further, in parallel with the normal operation of the robot, there are a method of performing communication without being noticed by the user and a method of performing communication during sleep when the robot is not used by the user.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-188787 "Conversation processing device and method and recording medium" claims a method for downloading a topical material provided by a robot to a user via a network.

[0004] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-229207, "Information collection system and information providing system", claims a method of uploading user information collected by a robot to a server via a network.

In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-191274 "Data holding device, robot device, changing device, changing method", a method of downloading control software itself built in a robot from a server via a network is described in the embodiment. Has been done.

[0006]

Conventionally, in a robot for amusement purposes such as a pet robot, it is considered that the robot is stationary for the time to complete the communication via the network. Gives the stress of not being able to communicate with the robot.

It is not always possible to have a method of carrying out communication without notice to the user in parallel with the normal operation of the robot. Since much of the communication is inconvenient if it is suddenly interrupted, the user must be instructed not to turn off the power of the robot while the communication is operating in parallel. In addition, if you are communicating by wire, you must guide the user not to leave the robot out of the range where the connection can reach, and if you are communicating wirelessly, from the range where the wireless is not shielded. I have to. However, these things contradict the fact that the user is not aware that communication is taking place.

[0008] In the method of performing communication during sleep when the robot is not used by the user, when the user turns on the power of the robot while the sleep and communication are in progress, the same problem as the first method occurs. become. Further, when communication is required to continue the activity inside the robot during the activity of the robot, it becomes necessary to enter the sleep state contrary to the expectation of the user. For example, assume that the robot has a function to download and read e-mail from a server on the Internet. At this time, if the user wants to read the latest email,
There is a need to put the robot to sleep.

An object of the present invention is to provide a system for operating a robot so as to prevent the user from getting tired and to give stress to the user while the robot is communicating via a network. is there.

[0010]

A communication robot according to a first aspect of the present invention is a communication robot including a sound source device for generating a voice and a communication device connected to a network, and an operation instruction for instructing an operation of the communication robot. Means, a communication means for controlling the communication device to perform communication in accordance with an instruction from the operation instructing means, and a sound generating means for generating sound using the sound source device, and the communication means executes communication. While the operation is in progress, the operation instructing means issues an instruction to the voice generating means to generate a voice indicating that communication is being performed on the network.

A second communication robot of the present invention is a communication robot comprising a sound source device for producing a voice and a communication device connected to a network, wherein the operation instruction means for instructing the operation of the communication robot and the operation instruction. A communication unit that performs communication via a network according to an instruction from the unit, and a sound generation unit that generates a sound by using the sound source device. While the communication unit is performing communication, the communication unit is The voice generation means is instructed to generate a voice indicating that communication is being performed on the network.

A third communication robot of the present invention is the communication robot of the first or second invention, wherein the voice generated by the voice generating means is in a communication state of communication, communication data transmitted / received, or communication. Of the other party, the type of communication, the number of times voice is generated, or a combination thereof.

A fourth communication robot of the present invention is the communication robot according to the first or second invention, wherein the voice generating means is in a communication state of communication or communication data to be transmitted and received.
Alternatively, it has a database in which a voice corresponding to the communication partner, the type of communication, the number of times voice is generated, or a combination thereof is recorded, and the database is searched by the instruction from the operation instructing means and the corresponding Make a voice.

A fifth communication robot of the present invention is the communication robot of the fourth invention, wherein the voice generated by the voice generation means virtually virtualizes a communication partner of the communication being performed to perform communication. The communication robot according to claim 4, wherein the communication robot is a voice imitating a conversation with a destination.

The communication robot system of the present invention is connected to the communication robot of the first, second, third, fourth or fifth aspect of the present invention and a server which communicates with the communication robot via a network.

A communication robot control method according to the present invention is a robot control method for generating a voice during communication, which comprises a first step of instructing start of voice generation, a second step of starting communication, and a communication. Communication status, communication data sent / received, communication partner, communication type,
Or searching the database that records the number of times the voice is generated, or the voice corresponding to the combination thereof.
And a fourth step of uttering the corresponding voice, and whether or not there is a voice generation stop instruction, and if there is no voice generation stop instruction, the third step and the fourth step are performed. It consists of a repeating fifth step.

The program of the present invention is a control program for a robot that produces a voice during communication, and includes a first process for instructing the start of voice production, a second process for initiating communication, and a communication state of communication. , Or communication data sent and received,
Alternatively, a third process of searching a database in which a voice corresponding to a communication partner, a communication type, the number of times the voice is generated, or a combination thereof, and a fourth process of uttering the corresponding voice are performed. Then, it is inspected whether or not there is a voice generation stop instruction, and if there is no voice generation stop instruction, the third process and the fourth process are repeated.
Processing.

[0018]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the communication robot system according to the embodiment of the present invention. The communication robot 100 is connected to the server 12 and the server 23 via the network 1. The network 1 communicates with the communication robot 100 wirelessly or by wire. The contents of communication include downloading topics and downloading programs.

Next, the configuration of the communication robot 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the communication robot 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2, the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a communication robot 100, a voice synthesizing speech device 101 incorporated in the communication robot 100, a communication device 102, a processor 103, and control software 10.
4, a communication unit 105, a voice generation unit 106, and a database 107.

Each of these means operates roughly as follows. The processor 103 uses the control software 10
4 is read and the instruction sequence described therein is sequentially executed. The command sequence includes a command to the communication unit 105 and a command to the voice generation unit 106. When executing communication accompanied by voice generation, for example, the following sequence of commands appears.

[0021] ． ． ． ． ． ． ． ． Start voice generation (communication partner, communication type) Communication (communication partner, transmission data) Stop voice generation (). ． ． ． ． ． ． ． ． Is a command for controlling the communication robot 100 other than voice and communication. When the processor 103 executes the “voice generation start (communication partner, communication type)” of the command of (1), the voice generation means 106 is accompanied by two data of “communication partner” and “communication type”. , "Start voice generation" is issued. When the processor 103 executes the command "communication (communication partner, transmission data)", the communication means 105 is instructed to carry out the communication together with the two data "communication partner" and "communication data". To be done. The voice generation means 106 is executed by the processor 103 executing the instruction “stop voice generation ()”.
On the other hand, an instruction to “stop voice generation” is issued for the voice generation that was started earlier. With these command sequences, the voice generation unit 10 is activated while the communication unit 105 is communicating.
The process of generating voice by 6 is realized.

In this example, the communication means 105 is synchronous, that is, the processor 103 waits for the completion of the communication processing in the communication means 105 at the time of executing the command to the communication means 105. To send an instruction to the communication means 105 asynchronously, that is, the processor 1
03, when the command to the communication means 105 is executed, it can be carried out even when the method is switched to an instruction method which does not wait for the completion of the communication in the communication means 105.

The control software 104 of this example is an example of transmitting data from the robot to the communication partner, but when receiving data from the communication partner,
Alternatively, it can also be carried out when bidirectionally transmitting / receiving data to / from a communication partner.

In accordance with a command sent from the processor 103, the communication means 105 communicates with a communication partner designated by the data accompanying the command, for example, the server 12, and the communication device 1
It is realized by controlling 02.

The voice generation means 106 is the processor 103.
A voice is generated based on the data accompanying the instruction in accordance with the instruction sent from, and this is reproduced by using the voice synthesizing speech device 101. The voice synthesis utterance device 101 includes a function of receiving text data of utterance contents, converting the voice signal into a voice signal, and reproducing the voice signal from a speaker incorporated in the communication robot 100.

Next, the operation of the voice generating means 106 included in the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing data in the database 107 in the communication robots 100 and 100b according to the first and second embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 4 shows a communication robot 100 according to the first and second embodiments of the present invention.
This flow is a flowchart showing the operation of the voice generation means 106 included in 100b.
When the device receives an instruction of "starting voice generation" from other means, it starts. First, the status is set to "at start" (Fig. 3
Step A1). Next, the database 107 of which the example is shown in FIG.

The database 107 has a format in which there are a plurality of records, each of which has four elements of status, communication partner, communication type, and voice designation. The voice stored in the database 107 virtually virtualizes the communication partner of the communication being performed,
You may make it imitate that you are talking with the communication destination in human language.

In the search of the database 107, the "status" of the voice generation means 106 and the processor 1
In the database 107, a record whose elements match the total of three data items of the "communication partner" and the "communication type" passed from No. 03 is found, and if found, the designation of the voice included in the record is reproduced. The voice to be reproduced is reproduced using the voice synthesizing speech device 101 (step A3).

For example, the current status is "at start"
Then, if the “server 12” is passed as the “communication partner” and the “topic download” is passed as the “communication type” from the processor 103, the third record from the top in the table of FIG. 4 is matched. Then, "Hello, server-kun, what's wrong?" Which is the designation of the voice described in the record is taken out as the voice to be reproduced.

In this embodiment, the database 107 includes text data to be uttered, and the text data is reproduced by using the voice synthesizing utterance device 101. However, a plurality of voice data reproducible in the robot ( For example, data in MP3 format) is included in the database 10
Reference numeral 7 includes designation of these voice data instead of text data. Further, there is a reproducing device in the communication robot 100 for converting the voice data into a voice signal and reproducing it from a speaker built in the communication robot 100. There may be a form in which the playback device speaks.

Further, in this embodiment, the database 10
It is supposed that the record constituting 7 includes four elements of status, communication partner, communication type, and voice designation, but includes only one or two of status, communication partner, and communication type. There can be forms. In addition to the elements shown here, "communication status" such as during communication connection, failure occurrence, "part of data" sent and received, and "count value" uttered by this flowchart are used as elements. There may be a form adopted and used as a factor for changing the utterance. In addition, if the communication robot 100 has virtual emotions and growth imitating humans or animals, there is a possibility that the utterance is changed using the scale value of the emotions and growth as an element.

Following step A3, the status is set to "in communication" (step A4). Next, it is determined whether or not an instruction of "stop voice generation" has arrived from other means (step A5), and if it has arrived, to step A8,
If it has not arrived, the voice to be reproduced is obtained by the same procedure as step A2 (step A6), the voice is reproduced by the same procedure as step A3 (step A7), and the process returns to step A5.

When it is determined in step A5 that the communication is completed, the status is set to "communication completed" (step A8), and the voice to be reproduced is obtained by the same procedure as in step A2 (step A9). The voice is reproduced by the same procedure as A3 (step A10), and this flow is ended.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the communication robot 100b according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The difference from the first embodiment lies in the data and instructions exchanged between the respective means.

Each of these means operates roughly as follows. The processor 103 uses the control software 10
4 is read and the instruction sequence described therein is sequentially executed. The command sequence includes commands to the communication means 105.
For example, the following command sequence is provided.

.. ． ． ． ． ． ． ． ． Communication (communication partner, communication type, transmission data). ． ． ． ． ． ． ． ． The meaning of the notation is the same as that of the first embodiment, but unlike the first embodiment, the instruction to the voice generating means 106 does not explicitly appear in the control software 104. In the second embodiment, the communication unit 105 gives an instruction to the voice generation unit 106.

Upon receiving the communication instruction from the processor 103, the communication means 105 generates a voice with two data "communication partner" and "communication type" received from the processor 103 before starting the communication. Means 106
In response to this, an instruction to “start voice generation” is issued. Further, the communication means 105, when the communication is completed, the voice generating means 10.
6, the instruction of “stop voice generation” is issued. The voice generation means 106 performs the same operation as that of the first embodiment including the flowchart.

The control software 104 from the operation of the voice generating means 106 in steps A1 to A10 described above and the operation described above can be realized by a program operating on the processor 103. Figure 6
It is a figure which shows the example of the processor 103 which performs the control method of the communication robots 100 and 100b of embodiment of this invention, and the recording medium 108 with which the program was recorded.

[0039]

The effect of the present invention is to suppress the user's tiredness while the communication robot is performing communication via the network, and to produce an effect so that the user is not stressed. The reason is that it is possible to generate a voice that changes depending on the state of communication, the type of communication, the communication partner, etc. during communication, in association with the execution of communication.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a communication robot system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a communication robot 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing data in a database 107 in the communication robots 100 and 100b according to the first and second embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a voice generation means 106 included in the communication robots 100 and 100b according to the first and second embodiments of the present invention.
Is a flowchart showing the operation of

FIG. 5 is a communication robot 100 according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
It is a block diagram which shows the structure of b.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a processor 103 for executing the control method of the communication robot according to the embodiment of the present invention and a recording medium 108 in which the program thereof is recorded.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 network 2 server 1 3 server 2 100 communication robot 100b communication robot 101 Speech synthesizer 102 communication device 103 processor 104 control software 105 communication means 106 voice generation means 107 database 108 recording medium

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A communication robot comprising a sound source device for generating a voice and a communication device connected to a network, wherein the communication device has an operation instructing means for instructing an operation of the communication robot, and an instruction from the operation instructing means. And a voice generating unit that generates voice using the sound source device, and the operation instructing unit controls the voice generating unit while the communication unit is performing communication. To generate a voice indicating that the network is communicating,
Characteristic communication robot. 2. A communication robot comprising a sound source device for producing a voice and a communication device connected to a network, the operation instruction means for instructing an operation of the communication robot, and a network via the operation instruction means. Communication means for performing the communication and voice generation means for generating voice using the sound source device, and while the communication means is performing communication, the communication means issues an instruction to the voice generation means. And a voice that indicates that communication is being performed on the network. 3. The voice generated by the voice generation means is a communication state of communication, communication data transmitted / received, a communication partner, a communication type, the number of times the voice is generated, or a combination thereof. The communication robot according to claim 1, wherein the communication robot changes according to the following. 4. The voice generation means is a communication state of communication,
Or the communication data sent or received, or the communication partner,
Alternatively, it has a database in which the voice corresponding to the type of communication, the number of times the voice is generated, or a combination thereof is recorded, and the database is searched by the instruction from the operation instructing means and the corresponding voice is uttered. The communication robot according to claim 1, wherein the communication robot is a communication robot. 5. The voice generated by the voice generation means is a voice that virtually virtualizes a communication partner of communication being performed and imitates that a conversation is being performed with the communication destination. The communication robot according to claim 4. 6. A communication robot system, wherein the communication robot according to claim 1 is connected to a server which communicates with the communication robot via a network. 7. A method of controlling a robot for generating voice during communication, comprising: a first step of instructing start of voice generation; a second step of starting communication; a communication state of communication; A third step of searching a database in which the voice corresponding to the communication data, the communication partner, the communication type, the number of times the voice is generated, or a combination thereof, and uttering the corresponding voice Fourth
And a fifth step of repeating the third step and the fourth step if there is no voice generation stop instruction. Control method. 8. A robot control program for generating voice during communication, comprising: a first process for instructing start of voice generation; a second process for starting communication; a communication state of communication; Third processing for searching a database in which the voice corresponding to the communication data, the communication partner, the type of communication, the number of times the voice is generated, or a combination thereof, and uttering the corresponding voice It is characterized by comprising a fourth processing, and a fifth processing for inspecting whether or not there is a voice generation stop instruction, and if there is no voice generation stop instruction, the third processing and the fourth processing are repeated. Robot control program.