Systems and corresponding control methods providing a ballistic robot that flies on a trajectory after being released (e.g., in non-powered flight as a ballistic body) from a launch mechanism. The ballistic robot is adapted to control its position and/or inflight movements by processing data from onboard and offboard sensors and by issuing well-timed control signals to one or more onboard actuators to achieve an inflight controlled motion. The actuators may move an appendage such as an arm or leg of the robot or may alter the configuration of one or more body links (e.g., to change from an untucked configuration to a tucked configuration), while other embodiments may trigger a drive mechanism of an inertia moving assembly to change/move the moment of inertia of the flying body. Inflight controlled movements are performed to achieve a desired or target pose and orientation of the robot during flight and upon landing.

A robot actor, or character mobility hardware platform, adapted to unleash or provide a wide variety of characters in the physical world. The robot actor enables the often screen-constrained characters to become life-like, interactive participants with nearby people in ways not presently achievable. The robot actor is an untethered, free-roaming robot that is has two (or more) legs, is adapted for high dexterity, is controlled and designed to be self-balancing, and, due to this combination of characteristics, the robot can provide characters with an illusion of life and, in many cases, in correct proportion and scale. The hardware and software of the robot actor will become a new generation of animatronic figures by providing a hardware platform capable of continuously evolving to become more capable through advances in controls and artificial intelligence (AI).

The control device 41 includes a desired variable value determining unit (52a) which determines desired values of unknown variables composed of coefficients in respective terms of a polynomial function expressing a desired ZMP trajectory and a landing position correction amount for correcting a desired landing position of a leg from a reference desired landing position. The desired variable value determining unit (52a) uses an evaluation function having the coefficients in the polynomial function and the landing position correction amount as unknown variables, and a plurality of constraint conditions each configured by a linear equality or linear inequality regarding the unknown variables, to determine desired values of the unknown variables, by a solution method for a quadratic programming problem, in such a way as to minimize the value of the evaluation function.

A method and apparatus for controlling dancing of a service robot are provided. The method comprises: providing corresponding part controlling commands for preset actions of individual parts of the service robot, and providing a dance controlling strategy indicating times for sending a command and a command sending interval of the part controlling commands; when receiving a dance starting command, establishing a wireless connection with an external speaker located outside the service robot, loading a song from a song library of the service robot, and determining that the song currently loaded by the service robot is the song to be played by the external speaker; according to the loaded song, selecting a dance controlling strategy used by the service robot, and determining a command sending timing of the part controlling command of the dance controlling strategy; and when the external speaker is playing the song and the command sending timing of the dance controlling strategy arrives, sending a randomly selected part controlling command to the corresponding part of the service robot till the times for sending a command of the dance controlling strategy is reached, and controlling the service robot to dance to the song.

To facilitate synchronization of a robot motion with a musical piece, a data conversion apparatus includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire first time-series information for designating coordinates of a constituent component of a predetermined computer graphics (CG) model on a beat basis in time series. The data conversion unit also includes a control unit configured to detect a structural difference between the predetermined CG model and a predetermined robot based on the first time-series information. The data conversion unit further includes a generation unit configured to correct the first time-series information based on the detected difference to generate second time-series information for designating coordinates of a constituent component of the predetermined robot on a beat basis in time series.

Systems and corresponding control methods providing a ballistic robot that flies on a trajectory after being released (e.g., in non-powered flight as a ballistic body) from a launch mechanism. The ballistic robot is adapted to control its position and/or inflight movements by processing data from onboard and offboard sensors and by issuing well-timed control signals to one or more onboard actuators to achieve an inflight controlled motion. The actuators may move an appendage such as an arm or leg of the robot or may alter the configuration of one or more body links (e.g., to change from an untucked configuration to a tucked configuration), while other embodiments may trigger a drive mechanism of an inertia moving assembly to change/move the moment of inertia of the flying body. Inflight controlled movements are performed to achieve a desired or target pose and orientation of the robot during flight and upon landing.

Systems and apparatus are disclosed herein of an entertainment both for providing robotic entertainment. For example, a robotic entertainment system is provided that includes a booth having a housing enclosing a viewing station opposite an entertainment station; a robotic entertainer disposed within the entertainment station, the robotic entertainer having a humanoid appearance and comprising a plurality of actuators; and a computing system coupled to the plurality of actuators and configured to control the actuators so to move the robotic entertainer in accordance with a performance.

A terminal for an action robot allows a user to easily manage motion data for controlling movement of the action robot and a method of operating the same. The terminal may include a storage configured to store motion data, a wireless communicator configured to transmit the motion data to an action robot, a display configured to display a motion production screen for generating the motion data, an input interface configured to receive a command for generating pieces of motion part data for controlling motion parts of the action robot through the motion production screen respectively, and a controller configured to generate the motion data by combining the pieces of motion part data.

A robot configured to provide accurate control over the rate of spin or rotation of the robot. To control the rate of spin, the robot includes an inertia shifting (or moving) assembly positioned within the robot's body so that the robot can land on a surface with a target orientation and stick the landing of a gymnastic maneuver. The inertia shifting assembly includes sensors that allow the distance from the landing surface (or height) to be determined and that allow other parameters useful in controlling the robot to be calculated such as present orientation. In one embodiment, the sensors include an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a laser range finder, and a controller processes their outputs to estimate orientation and angular velocity. The controller selects the right point of the flight to operate a drive mechanism in the inertia shifting assembly to achieve a targeted orientation.

Systems, methods and articles of manufacture for synchronized robot orientation are described herein. A magnetometer, gyroscope, and accelerometer in a remotely controlled device are used to determine a current orientation of that device, and a command with a specified orientation or location are set to several such devices. The remotely controlled devices self-align based on the specified orientation/location, and when in position, receive swarm commands to perform actions as a group of devices in coordination with one another.