Robot behavior control system, behavior control method, and robot device

A behavior control system for a robot that operates autonomously, comprising:

• one or more behavior modules each formed from a combination of a command for causing said robot to move and a behavior evaluator for evaluating a resource of a machine body of said robot necessary to execute the command;
• means for detecting a machine body resource or resources in a released state;
• and
• means for selectively activating those of said behavior modules which can be executed with the released machine body resources in accordance with a predetermined priority order;
• two or more ones of said behavior modules with which conflict of a resource does not occur being capable of being executed concurrently.

A behavior control method for a robot which operates autonomously, a plurality of behavior description modules which describe motions of a machine body of said robot being prepared, said behavior control method comprising:

• an external environment recognition step of recognizing an external environment of said machine body;
• an internal state management step of managing an internal state of said robot in response to the recognized external environment and/or a result of execution of a behavior;
• and
• a behavior evaluation step of evaluating execution of behaviors described in said behavior description modules in response to the external environment and/or the internal state.

A robot apparatus that generates a motion based on an internal input or an external input, comprising:

• one or more behavior modules for determining a behavior of said robot;
• behavior module management means for managing said behavior modules;
• state storage means for storing current states of said behavior modules;
• and
• one or more state machines corresponding to the states stored in said state storage means for outputting a behavior instruction based on an external or internal input;
• said behavior module management means managing said behavior modules such that, when outputting of a behavior instruction from any of said state machines is stopped and behavior outputting is to be resumed thereafter, said behavior module management means causes the state machine to resume the behavior outputting after said behavior module management means causes said robot to execute a predetermined behavior based on the states stored in said state storage means.