ROBOT DEVICE AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING ROBOT DEVICE OPERATION

摘要

A robot device comprising parts of the body such as the head (4) and legs (3A-3D), an actuator (25) for driving parts of the body, and the CPU (10) for outputting control signals to the actuator (25). The device calculates external force-related information such as the position, magnitude, and direction of an external force applied to the robot device based on changes in control signals that are output from the CPU (10) to drive the actuator (25) and in signals that are input to the CPU (10) as responses when the actuator (25) is driven. This external force information is used as information for selecting, in collaboration with the behavior and emotion of the robot device, the next behavior of the robot device. Since the robot device calculates external force information based on outputs from the CPU (10) and outputs from the actuator (25) and a potentiometer (26), an external forced can be detected depending on existing apparatuses without the need of adding a dedicated sensor.