JP7540517B2 - Apparatus and control method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a control method .

A robot control device has been proposed that controls a robot to encourage the user to take voluntary action. (For example, see Patent Document 1)

JP 2016-135530 A

In pet robots, which include the technologies described in the above patent documents and which have become increasingly popular in recent years, the amount of data handled in relation to input, processing, and output has increased significantly, including facial, voice, and spatial recognition of the surrounding environment, as well as emotional expression, dialogue functions, and various actions involving movement and motion, and when run as a standalone robot, the burden on the CPU becomes even greater. Furthermore, when performing cloud processing using an external network to realize some functions in order to reduce the CPU load, communication processing is required, and there is an issue of increased processing time whether in a standalone robot or when cloud processing is used in combination.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to enable a device such as a robot to rapidly respond to external stimuli from the surroundings while reducing the processing burden.

One aspect of the present invention comprises a device that performs an operation, a sensor that detects the sound pressure level of an external sound , a system CPU that executes a recognition process for the sound when the sound pressure level detected by the sensor does not exceed a preset threshold value, and outputs an instruction signal according to a result of a judgment as to what operation should be performed based on the obtained recognition result , and a device CPU that controls the device to perform an operation with the operation content indicated by the instruction signal when the instruction signal output by the system CPU is input, wherein, when an interrupt signal is input that is output when the sound pressure level detected by the sensor is equal to or higher than the threshold value, the device CPU judges whether or not to perform an operation with the operation content set in response to the interrupt signal based on the operation content of the operation of the device that was being executed immediately before the input of the interrupt signal, and if it is determined that the operation cannot be executed with the interrupt signal, the device CPU treats the interrupt signal as invalid and controls to continue the execution of the operation with the operation content of the operation of the device that was being executed immediately before the input of the interrupt signal , and the operation content set in response to the interrupt signal is an operation content expressing surprise .

According to the present invention, it becomes possible for a device such as a robot to rapidly respond to an external stimulus given from the surroundings while reducing the processing load.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a part of the configuration of the functional circuitry of the pet robot according to one embodiment of the present invention. 10 is a flowchart showing the overall processing content corresponding to a voice input according to the embodiment;

Below, an embodiment of the present invention applied to a pet robot (device) will be described with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 is a block diagram showing a part of the functional circuit configuration of a pet robot 10 according to this embodiment. The pet robot 10 receives external stimuli such as a user's call or command, or an external voice through a microphone, which is one of the sensors, and then analyzes the commands registered in advance through a voice recognition process and executes various preset operations.

In the figure, the audio signal corresponding to the surrounding sounds and the directivity of the microphone 11 itself, which is input from a microphone 11 embedded in the head of the pet robot 10, is converted into digital data in the codec section 12, coded according to a predetermined encoding format, and then provided to the system CPU 13.

On the other hand, when an audio signal with a sound pressure level equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold is input to the codec unit 12, the codec unit 12 sends an interrupt signal directly to the device CPU 14, which will be described later.

The system CPU 13 is the main CPU for the pet robot 10, and controls the entire pet robot 10; specifically, it generates an instruction signal that instructs the operation that the pet robot 10 should execute at that time based on the above-mentioned voice recognition process for the voice data from the codec section 12 and the pre-set contents for the processing result, and outputs it to the device CPU 14.

The device CPU 14 is a sub-CPU in the pet robot 10, and based on instruction signals given from the system CPU 13, it controls the drive of each device that actually operates in the pet robot 10, specifically, rotation drive control for a number of stepping motors (not shown) connected via the motor drive unit 15, display drive control for a liquid crystal display panel (LCD) connected via the display drive unit 16, and also controls audio output from a speaker (not shown).

The numerous stepping motors driven by the motor drive unit 15 are provided for each axis of the joints in the limbs and neck of the pet robot 10. The liquid crystal display panels are provided in the eyes of the pet robot 10 and in a display unit, for example, in the chest.

In this embodiment, a device control device consisting of a codec unit 12, a system CPU 13, and a device CPU 14 controls devices such as a stepping motor and a display unit.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.
2 is a flow chart showing the overall processing contents corresponding to the voice input in the pet robot 10. This processing is mainly performed by the system CPU 13, which is the main CPU, and the device CPU 14, which is the sub-CPU, in cooperation with each other.

When the power is turned on and the device is started up, the system CPU 13 first sets the sound pressure level Lth, which is the threshold value for the input sound (step S101).

The threshold sound pressure level Lth may be a fixed value prepared in advance, or the fixed value may be increased or decreased using a predetermined coefficient depending on the ambient sound pressure level measured by the microphone 11 at that time.

Then, under the control of the system CPU 13, the codec unit 12 determines whether there is an input voice from the microphone 11 at a preset minimum sound pressure level, thereby determining whether there is any call or the like directed at the pet robot 10 (step S102).

If there is no input sound obtained by the microphone 11 and it is determined that there is no call to the pet robot 10 (No in step S102), the codec unit 12 continues to repeatedly execute the process of step S102, waiting for some kind of call to the pet robot 10.

Furthermore, in the above step S102, if it is determined that there is an input voice obtained by the microphone 11 and that there has been some kind of call to the pet robot 10 (Yes in step S102), the codec unit 12 digitizes and codes the input voice signal and detects the sound pressure level from the digitized result (step S103).

The codec unit 12 determines whether the detected sound pressure level exceeds the threshold value Lth set above (step S104).

If it is determined that the detected sound pressure level does not exceed the threshold value Lth (No in step S104), the codec unit 12 sends the coded audio data directly to the system CPU 13.

The system CPU 13 executes voice recognition processing on the voice data input from the codec unit 12, and based on the obtained recognition results, determines what operation the pet robot 10 should perform during normal operation according to the operating program, and then generates an instruction signal according to the result of the determination and sends it to the device CPU 14.

The device CPU 14 receives the instruction signal and drives each stepping motor by the motor drive unit 15 in accordance with the contents of the received instruction signal, and drives the liquid crystal display panel to display the specified display contents by the display drive unit 16.

After the system CPU 13 and device CPU 14 have executed the normal operation process control corresponding to the audio data coded by the codec unit 12 (step S105), the process returns to step S102 to prepare for the next audio input.

In addition, in step S104, if it is determined that the detected sound pressure level exceeds the threshold value Lth, for example, if a stimulus such as a loud voice is given to startle the pet robot 10 (Yes in step S104), the codec unit 12 outputs an interrupt signal directly to the device CPU 14.

When the device CPU 14 receives this interrupt signal, it determines whether the current operating situation will have a negative effect, such as causing a fall, by checking whether the operation that was previously being performed by the motor drive unit 15 and the motor drive unit 15 and the operation that was previously set in response to the interrupt signal are not among the prohibited combinations (step S107).

If it is determined that the immediately preceding operation and the operation set by the interrupt signal are a prohibited combination and may have a negative effect on the current operating situation (No in step S107), the device CPU 14 invalidates the interrupt signal from the codec unit 12, proceeds to step S105, and continues the operation that was being executed up until that point.

In addition, in step S107, if it is determined that the immediately preceding operation content and the operation content set by the interrupt signal are not a prohibited combination and that there is no possibility of a negative effect given the current operating situation (Yes in step S107), the device CPU 14 activates the interrupt signal from the codec unit 12 instead of the operation that was being executed up until then, and causes the motor drive unit 15 to rotate and drive each stepping motor to perform a pre-set operation, such as jumping in surprise or displaying startled eyes, or causes the display drive unit 16 to display and drive the liquid crystal display panel with the display content instructed (step S108).

In addition, the device CPU 14 notifies the system CPU 13 that it has executed temporary processing corresponding to this interrupt signal (step S109), and then returns to the processing from step S102 above to prepare for the next voice input.

It should be noted that multiple operations can be set for the device CPU 14 to temporarily process in response to an interrupt signal from the codec unit 12, and one operation can be selected randomly from among them, or an operation that is unlikely to have a negative effect immediately after the previously executed operation can be preferentially selected.

As described above in detail, the above embodiment makes it possible to quickly respond to stimuli from the surroundings while reducing the processing burden on the system CPU 13, which is the main CPU.

In addition, in the above embodiment, when an interrupt signal is sent from the codec unit 12 to the device CPU 14, if the device CPU 14 determines, based on a combination of the operation that was being executed immediately before and the operation that is executed in response to the interrupt signal, that there is a possibility that the pet robot 10 may be adversely affected, for example by its posture becoming unstable, it disables the input of the interrupt signal, thereby preventing the behavior of the pet robot 10 from being disrupted by excessive external stimuli.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the sub-CPU, the device CPU 14, executes a temporary operation in response to an interrupt signal from the codec unit 12, and then notifies the system CPU 13, the main CPU, of the operation to be executed. Therefore, even after the system CPU 13, which executes the overall operation control of the pet robot 10, temporarily operates mainly on the device CPU 14 in response to a large external stimulus, it is possible to keep track of the results and use them for the next control.

In the above embodiment, it was explained that when the pet robot 10 is first powered on and started up, the system CPU 13 sets the sound pressure level Lth, which is the threshold value for judging the loudness of the input sound in the codec section 12. However, the threshold value that serves as the criterion for such judgment may be set arbitrarily by the user, and furthermore, by allowing it to be variably set with a certain degree of freedom depending on the time of day, etc., it is possible to further vary the operation of the pet robot 10.

In the above embodiment, the case where the pet robot 10 reacts to the sound pressure of the sound input by the microphone 11 as an external stimulus given to the pet robot 10 has been described, but detection of external stimuli is not limited to sound. It is possible to produce a wide variety of movements by detecting various external stimuli such as external images using an image sensor, external forces, posture, falling state, etc. using an acceleration sensor, brightness using an illuminance sensor, outside temperature and humidity using a temperature sensor and a humidity sensor, and outside air pressure, operating pressure, and water pressure using a pressure sensor.

In the above embodiment, the application to a robot having a main CPU and a sub-CPU has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and can also be applied to a single CPU, a controlled object that operates with software having a program structure that divides and controls a program area that controls the overall operation of the controlled robot etc., and a program area that drives and controls multiple devices at the end for each individual operation, or a controlled object that has a multi-processor structure that controls each of multiple devices at the end using a microprocessor.

In the above embodiment, the codec unit 12 determines whether an external stimulus has occurred and sends an interrupt signal. However, a means for determining whether an external stimulus has occurred and sending an interrupt signal may be provided separately from the codec unit 12.

Furthermore, the present invention can be applied not only to robots, but also to various electronic devices that operate in response to external stimuli.

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made in the implementation stage without departing from the gist of the invention. The embodiments may also be implemented in appropriate combinations, in which case the combined effects can be obtained. Furthermore, the above-described embodiments include various inventions, and various inventions can be extracted by combinations selected from the multiple constituent elements disclosed. For example, if the problem can be solved and an effect can be obtained even if some constituent elements are deleted from all the constituent elements shown in the embodiments, the configuration from which these constituent elements are deleted can be extracted as an invention.

The invention as originally claimed in the present application is set forth below.
[Claim 1]
A device control device that controls an apparatus having a device that performs an operation and a sensor that detects an external environment,
a first control means for outputting an instruction signal for an operation corresponding to the sensor data outputted by the sensor;
a second control means for controlling an operation of the device based on an instruction signal output by the first control means;
Equipped with
A device control device in which the second control means controls operation of the device based on an interrupt signal without using the instruction signal output by the first control means when the sensor data satisfies a preset condition.
[Claim 2]
a conversion means for generating the interrupt signal when the sensor data satisfies a preset condition;
2. The device control device according to claim 1, wherein the second control means controls an operation of the device based on the interrupt signal output from the conversion means without using the instruction signal output from the first control means.
[Claim 3]
The conversion means converts the detection output of the sensor into data and outputs the data.
3. The device control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the first control means outputs an instruction signal for an operation corresponding to the sensor data output by the conversion means.
[Claim 4]
4. The device control device according to claim 1, wherein said second control means judges whether or not to operate in response to said interrupt signal based on the operation of said device that was being controlled immediately before the input of said interrupt signal.
[Claim 5]
5. A device control device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second control means controls the operation of the device based on the operation content of the device that was being controlled immediately before the input of the interrupt signal, and then notifies the first control means of the content of the control.
[Claim 6]
4. The device control device according to claim 2, wherein the predetermined condition for the sensor data, under which the conversion means outputs the interrupt signal, can be arbitrarily set.
[Claim 7]
A device control method for controlling an apparatus having a device that performs an operation and a sensor that detects an external environment, comprising:
a first control step of outputting an instruction signal for an operation corresponding to the sensor data output by the sensor;
a second control step of controlling an operation of the device based on the instruction signal output in the first control step;
and when the sensor data satisfies a preset condition, controlling an operation of the device based on an interrupt signal without using the instruction signal output in the first control step.
[Claim 8]
A program executed by a computer that controls an apparatus having a device that performs an operation and a sensor that detects an external environment, the program comprising:
a first control means for outputting an instruction signal for an operation corresponding to the sensor data outputted by the sensor;
a second control means for controlling an operation of the device based on an instruction signal output by the first control means;
and make it work.
A program in which the second control means controls operation of the device based on an interrupt signal without using the instruction signal output by the first control means when the sensor data satisfies a preset condition.

10: Pet robot 11: Microphone 12: Codec unit 13: System CPU (main CPU)
14...Device CPU (sub-CPU)
15... Motor drive unit 16... Display drive unit

Claims (5)

A device for performing an action;
A sensor for detecting a sound pressure level of an external sound ;
a system CPU that, when the sound pressure level detected by the sensor does not exceed a preset threshold value, executes a voice recognition process and outputs an instruction signal according to a result of the determination as to what action should be taken based on the obtained recognition result;
a device CPU that , when receiving an instruction signal output by the system CPU , controls the device so as to execute an operation according to the operation content indicated by the instruction signal;
Equipped with
The CPU for the device is:
when an interrupt signal is input, which is output when the sound pressure level detected by the sensor is equal to or higher than the threshold value, a determination is made as to whether or not to execute an operation with the operation content set in response to the interrupt signal, based on the operation content of the operation of the device that was being executed immediately before the input of the interrupt signal;
when it is determined that the operation in response to the interrupt signal cannot be executed, the interrupt signal is regarded as invalid, and control is performed so as to continue the execution of the operation of the device that was being executed immediately before the input of the interrupt signal ;
The action content set in response to the interrupt signal is an action content expressing surprise.
An apparatus comprising: The device CPU further controls, when it determines that it is possible to execute the operation with the operation content set in response to the interrupt signal, to execute the operation with the operation content set in response to the interrupt signal .
2. The apparatus of claim 1 . The above threshold value can be set arbitrarily .
3. Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2. The device CPU further controls, when the interrupt signal is input, the device to execute an operation according to the operation content set in response to the interrupt signal .
4. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3. A method for controlling an apparatus having a device that performs an operation and a sensor that detects a sound pressure level of an external sound, comprising the steps of:
an output step in which a system CPU executes a voice recognition process when the sound pressure level detected by the sensor does not exceed a preset threshold value, and outputs an instruction signal according to a result of the determination as to what action should be taken based on the obtained recognition result;
a control step in which, when the instruction signal outputted in the output step is inputted to a device CPU, the device CPU controls the device so as to execute an operation according to the operation content indicated by the instruction signal;
Including,
In the control step, the device CPU
when an interrupt signal is input, which is output when the sound pressure level detected by the sensor is equal to or higher than the threshold value, a determination is made as to whether or not to execute an operation with the operation content set in response to the interrupt signal, based on the operation content of the operation of the device that was being executed immediately before the input of the interrupt signal;
when it is determined that the operation in response to the interrupt signal cannot be executed, the interrupt signal is regarded as invalid, and control is performed so as to continue the execution of the operation of the device that was being executed immediately before the input of the interrupt signal;
The action content set in response to the interrupt signal is an action content expressing surprise.
A control method comprising: