Robot system

A robot system driving method for drive-controlling a robot to be assembled by connecting a plurality of component units to a body via HUBs, comprising the steps of:

• detecting a linkage state of said each component unit in terms of tree structure data;
• storing a plurality of types of tree structure data representing a plurality of categories which correspond to a plurality of linkage states of the robot, and storing also a plurality of operation control programs that correspond to said plurality of categories, for controlling operations of said component units;
• determining the category of the linkage state of said robot apparatus by comparing the result of the detection of the linkage state with the linkage states of different categories stored in a memory means;
• and
• drive-controlling said each component unit based on said operation control program selected according to the determined category from among the plurality of operation control programs.

A robot apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of component units connected to the body of said robot apparatus via HUBs;
• a linkage state detector for detecting the state of linkage of said component units in terms of tree structure data which defines said state of linkage;
• a memory for storing a plurality of types of tree structure data representing a plurality of categories which correspond to a plurality of linkage states of the robot, and storing also a plurality of opertaion control programs that correspond to said plurality of categories, for controlling operations of said component units;
• a category determination unit for determining the category of the linkage state of said robot apparatus by comparing the result of the detection of the linkage state performed by said linkage state detector with the linkage states of different categories stored in said memory;
• and
• a control unit for controlling operations of said plurality of component units based on said operation control program selected according to the category determined by said determination unit from among the plurality of operation control programs stored in said memory.