Research on the generation mechanism of the behavior intelligence for a quadruped robot assisting the disabilities

为了实现助残四足机器人，我们开展了助残机器人研制的基础研究。为了提高作为辅助机器人在室外不规则地形上行走的能力，我们研制了自给式四足机器人Tekken2。在已有的生物启发控制方法的基础上，增加了“侧步反射”和“重步反射”，提高了对不规则地形的适应能力。因此，我们成功地使用Tekken2进行了户外实验。另一方面，作为与人交互的功能，我们在Tekken2上安装了一个立体摄像头，并在天花板上安装了其他立体摄像头，构建了系统，使Tekken2能够使用这些摄像头与人进行交互。我们演示了Tekken2的几种交互行为，如坐在人类面前检测人类的手势等。最后，将系统集成到新开发的四足机器人Tekken3上，实现了一个自给自足的助狗机器人，该机器人具有足够的原型功能。

Intending to realize a quadruped robot assisting the disabilities, we carried out the basic study on the development of a helper robot, which can follow a disable person. In order to increase the ability of walking on irregular terrain in outdoor environment as a helper robot, we developed the self-contained quadruped robot "Tekken2". We implemented "side-way stepping reflex" and "re-stepping reflex" in addition to the already implemented biologically inspired control methods and increased the adaptation ability to irregular terrain. As a result, we succeeded in the outdoor experiments using Tekken2. We also implemented the methods to measure the movable region using vision in outdoor environment.On the other hand, as the function to interact with human, we mounted a stereo camera on Tekken2 and other stereo camera on the ceiling, and constructed the system, which made Tekken2 interact with human using those cameras. We demonstrated several interactive behavior of Tekken2, such as sitting in front of human while detecting human hand sign, and so on. As a result, we confirmed the effectiveness of the constructed system.Finally, we integrated all those system on the newly developed quadruped robot "Tekken3" and realized a self-contained helper dog robot, which has the sufficient functions as a prototype.