Legged mobile robot, leg control method, and program storage medium
AssigneeNEC Corporation
InventorTakeharu KITAGAWA
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A legged mobile robot includes at least two legs. The legs are movable in a front-rear direction of the legged mobile robot. Each of distal end portions of the legs is provided with a plurality of protrusions. Protruding directions of the protrusions are a plurality of directions including a lateral direction intersecting with the front-rear direction. The protrusions can come into contact with a moving surface on which the legs move. Further, the legged mobile robot includes a drive device that displaces each of the protrusions up down with respect to a sole in contact with the moving surface in the leg. The legged mobile robot further includes a control device that controls movement of the protrusions.
Claims7
A legged mobile robot comprising:
- a plurality of legs movable in a front-rear direction;
- a plurality of protrusions respectively protruding in a plurality of directions including at least a lateral direction intersecting with the front-rear direction from a distal end portion of each of the plurality of legs, and capable of coming into contact with a moving surface on which the legs move;
- a drive device configured to displace each of the protrusions up and down with respect to a sole of each of the legs, the sole being a part in contact with the moving surface;
- and
- a control device configured to control movement of each of the protrusions by controlling the drive device.
A leg control method comprising:
- by a computer configuring a control device of a legged mobile robot including a plurality of legs movable in a front-rear direction, a plurality of protrusions respectively protruding in a plurality of directions including at least a lateral direction intersecting with the front-rear direction from a distal end portion of each of the plurality of legs, and capable of coming into contact with a moving surface on which the legs move, a drive device configured to displace each of the protrusions up and down with respect to a sole of each of the legs, the sole being a part in contact with the moving surface, and the control device configured to control movement of each of the protrusions by controlling the drive device,
- controlling the drive device in such a way that, when a leg lands on the moving surface after moving in a direction away from the moving surface, the leg being included in the plurality of legs, no force is applied from the drive device to the protrusions of the landing leg;
- and
- controlling the drive device to lock movement of the protrusions of the landing leg after the protrusions follow a shape of the moving surface by the landing of the leg.
A non-transitory program storage medium storing a computer program for causing a computer configuring a control device of a legged mobile robot including a plurality of legs movable in a front-rear direction, a plurality of protrusions respectively protruding in a plurality of directions including at least a lateral direction intersecting with the front-rear direction from a distal end portion of each of the plurality of legs, and capable of coming into contact with a moving surface on which the legs move, a drive device configured to displace each of the protrusions up and down with respect to a sole of each of the legs, the sole being a part in contact with the moving surface, and the control device configured to control movement of each of the protrusions by controlling the drive device, to execute:
- controlling the drive device in such a way that, when a leg lands on the moving surface after moving in a direction away from the moving surface, the leg being included in the plurality of legs, no force is applied from the drive device to the protrusions of the landing leg;
- and
- controlling the drive device to lock movement of the protrusions of the landing leg after the protrusions follow a shape of the moving surface by the landing of the leg.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.