Robot apparatus and control method therefor, and robot character discriminating method

Abstract

In a robot apparatus and a control method therefor, firstly, partial or whole state space of a behavioral model is expanded or reduced, secondly, transition to a predetermined node in the behavioral model is described as transition to a virtual node and a node group to be allotted to the virtual node is sequentially changed, thirdly, the number of emotions and / or desires which are used for generating actions is gradually increased, and fourthly, an environment is evaluated to update each sensitivity corresponding to each emotion and desire, on the basis of the evaluated. In the robot apparatus and the character discriminating method for the robot apparatus, a pet robot is provided with: detecting means for detecting outputs from other pet robots; character discriminating means for discriminating characters of the pet robots on the basis of the result detected by the detecting means; and character changing means for changing the character on the basis of the result judged by the character discriminating means.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a robot apparatus and a control method therefor, and a robot character discriminating method, and more particularly to, for example, a pet robot. BACKGROUND ART [0002] As the first background art, in recent years, a four-legged walking type pet robot has been proposed and developed by the applicant of the present application. Such a pet robot has a shape similar to a dog and a cat which are raised in a general home, and is adapted to be able to autonomously act in response to approach from the user such as “patting” or “petting,” a surrounding environment or the like. [0003] Also, this pet robot is mounted with a learning function to change revelation probability of corresponding action on the basis of approaches such as “patting” and “petting” from the user, a growth function for stepwise changing the degree of difficulty of the action and the level of complicatedness on the basis of accumulation, elapsed time or the like of t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015] The present invention has been achieved in consideration of the above described points, and is aimed to propose: firstly, a robot apparatus and control method therefor which are capable of improving the entertainment characteristics; secondly, a robot apparatus and control method therefor which are capable of improving the amusement characteristics; thirdly, a robot apparatus and a robot character discriminating method which are capable of forming the character more real.

[0016] In order to solve such problems, a robot apparatus according to the present invention is provided with: memory means for storing behavioral model; and action generating means for generating actions by the use of partial or full state space of the behavioral model, and the action generating means is caused to change state space to be used for action generation, of the behavioral models while expanding or reducing the state space. As a result, this robot apparatus is capable of reducing discontinuity in action output before and after change in state space to be used for action generation because the state space to be used for action generation continuously changes. Thereby, output actions can be changed smoothly and naturally, thus making it possible to realize a robot apparatus which improves the entertainment characteristics.

[0017] Also, according to the present invention, in a robot apparatus having a behavioral model consisting of state transition models and for generating action on the basis of the behavioral model concerned, transition to a predetermined node in the behavioral model is described as transition to a virtual node consisting of imaginary nodes, a predetermined first node group is allocated to the virtual node concerned, and change means for changing a node group to be allocated to the virtual node is provided. As a result, in this robot apparatus, it is possible to provide consistency in the output action because the behavioral model, which becomes the basis, is fixed. Thereby, output actions can be changed smoothly and naturally, thus making it possible to realize a robot apparatus which improves the entertainment characteristics.

Problems solved by technology

This has led to a problem that the user, who has been used to and familiar with the action pattern until then, feels unnaturally.

Also, according to the method, even if there is any duplicate action pattern, it is necessary to prepare a behavioral model portion for the action pattern for each “growth stage,” and therefore, there is a problem that an operation for generating the behavioral model will become complicated by that much.

However, in the case where the growth processes of the living thing are taken into consideration, it is impossible to estimate that the emotion and instinct thereof always work on the basis of the same models from a BABY period to an adult period.

Therefore, the above mentioned modeling of human emotion has involved an unnatural problem from the viewpoint of “growth”.

Further, in the case where an application that an autonomous robot treated as a pet is equipped with emotion or instinct is considered, it is difficult for a user to understand and accept the robot which has initially perfect emotion and instinct.

Further, in the above robot, if the emotion and the instinct of the robot do not change and are always the same, the user is liable to lose interest in the robot.

Thus, the robot is disadvantageously insufficient in view of commercialization and amusement characteristics.

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