A vertical surface cleaning device comprising a main body, a cleaning arm, a cleaning head, and leg mechanisms with grippers. The cleaning head applies a cleaning fluid on a surface to carry out a cleaning operation. A waste collector is provided to collect a waste material arising from the cleaning operation. The grippers may remain in a grip or in a release state. The segments of the leg mechanisms are articulatable to configure a first group of the leg mechanisms to stably hold the main body at a first place with the grippers remaining in the grip state. A second group of the leg mechanisms move in a desired direction with their grippers in release state while the first group stably holds the main body. The first group of the leg mechanisms then moves in the same direction while the second group holds the main body at a second place.

A configuration that exerts floor reaction force directly to a force sensor in a foot of a legged mobile robot requires a sensor having a large withstand load. A foot (10f) includes an upper frame (44) that is connected to a movable leg and receives the load of a robot, a lower frame (48) that is deployed under the upper frame (44) and contacts with a walking surface, a high rigidity spring (50) attached the lower frame (48) and elastically supporting the upper frame (44) against the load, and a plurality of sensor mechanisms that detect floor reaction force at positions different from each other on the lower frame (48). Each of the sensor mechanisms includes a force sensor (62) attached to one of the upper frame (44) and the lower frame (48) and a sensor spring (52) that is an elastic body having rigidity lower than that of the high rigidity spring (50) and has a supporting point deployed on the other one of the upper frame (44) and the lower frame (48) so as to exert pressing force to the force sensor (62) according to a change of the distance between the upper frame (44) and the lower frame (48).

The present technology relates to an autonomous mobile body, an information processing method, a program, and an information processing device that enable a user to experience discipline for the autonomous mobile body. The autonomous mobile body includes: a recognition unit that recognizes an instruction given; an action planning unit that plans an action on the basis of the instruction recognized; and an operation control unit that controls execution of the action planned, in which the action planning unit changes a detail of a predetermined action as an action instruction that is an instruction for the predetermined action is repeated. The present technology can be applied to a robot, for example.

A three-rotational-degree-of-freedom connection mechanism required for a robot that can make motion similar to a human has a simple structure, and there is no restriction on motion within a movable range. The three-rotational-degree-of-freedom connection mechanism includes a joint connecting a second member rotatably to a first member with three rotational degrees of freedom including rotation around a torsion axis, three actuators each including variable length links having a variable length, and power sources for generating force changing the lengths of variable length links and three first-member-side link attaching units provided in first member and the second-member-side link attaching units provided on the second member such that variable length links having a twisted relationship with respect to a torsion axis exist in each state within a movable range of joint.

A three-rotational-degree-of-freedom connection mechanism required for a robot that can make motion similar to a human has a simple structure, and there is no restriction on motion within a movable range. The three-rotational-degree-of-freedom connection mechanism includes a joint connecting a second member rotatably to a first member with three rotational degrees of freedom including rotation around a torsion axis, three actuators each including variable length links having a variable length, and power sources for generating force changing the lengths of variable length links and three first-member-side link attaching units provided in first member and the second-member-side link attaching units provided on the second member such that variable length links having a twisted relationship with respect to a torsion axis exist in each state within a movable range of joint.

The present disclosure discloses a self-adaptive mechanical foot for the legged robot. The mechanical foot has a piston disposed inside a piston cylinder. The piston is connected to one end of each humeral plate, and the piston cylinder is connected to the other end of each humeral plate. The humeral plates perform opening and closing movement through the up-down movement of the piston in the piston cylinder. The humeral plates are connected to toes on the foot and drive the toes to open and close through the up-down movement. The mechanical foot provided by the present disclosure has higher standing stability and fast interaction response speed when interacting with the terrain. It can realize arbitrary and fast switching between a point-like foot and a planar foot, and meanwhile avoids collision between a support leg and a swing leg.

Disclosed is a biped robot and multi-configuration robot capable of being spliced autonomously, and a control method of the multi-configuration robot. The biped robot comprises a torso, arms, legs, a tolerance docking sleeve, and a torso docking device. The arms are correspondingly arranged at the left and right sides of the torso, and two legs are arranged at the lower side of the torso. The tolerance docking sleeve is movably arranged at the rear side of the torso through a base, and the torso docking device is fixed to the front side of the torso. Single biped robots in the present disclosure can form a multi-configuration legged combined body in a self-organization and reconstruction mode so as to achieve bipedal, quadrupedal, hexapodal and other multi-legged configurations. The motion stability and the load capacity of the legged robot are improved through the splicing combination of the modular legged robots.

Disclosed is a biped robot and multi-configuration robot capable of being spliced autonomously, and a control method of the multi-configuration robot. The biped robot comprises a torso, arms, legs, a tolerance docking sleeve, and a torso docking device. The arms are correspondingly arranged at the left and right sides of the torso, and two legs are arranged at the lower side of the torso. The tolerance docking sleeve is movably arranged at the rear side of the torso through a base, and the torso docking device is fixed to the front side of the torso. Single biped robots in the present disclosure can form a multi-configuration legged combined body in a self-organization and reconstruction mode so as to achieve bipedal, quadrupedal, hexapodal and other multi-legged configurations. The motion stability and the load capacity of the legged robot are improved through the splicing combination of the modular legged robots.

A robotic assembly comprises a first joint comprising first and second support members rotatably coupled together, and a joint position restoration assembly coupled to at least one of the first or second support members. The joint position restoration assembly can comprise a first spring and a mechanical linkage, wherein the joint position restoration assembly is operable to apply a restoring torque to the first joint. The joint position restoration assembly can be configured to provide a restoring torque versus joint position profile relative to the first joint that corresponds to known mass properties of at least a portion of the robotic assembly acting on or otherwise associated with the first joint, such that, when the first joint is not undergoing powered actuation, the joint position restoration assembly operates to apply, based on the profile, the restoring torque to position and to support the first joint in a stable support position.

A robotic system comprising an upper robotic assembly and a base platform rotatable relative to one another in at least one degree of freedom via one or more joints. The robotic system further comprises a joint position restoration assembly coupled to at least one of the upper robotic assembly or the base platform, and having a first spring coupled between the upper robotic assembly and the base platform, the joint position restoration assembly being operable to apply a restoring torque to the first joint, wherein the joint position restoration assembly is configured to provide a restoring torque versus joint position profile relative to the first joint that corresponds to mass properties of at least a portion of the robotic assembly associated with the first joint, such that the joint position restoration assembly operates to apply the restoring torque to position and to support the first joint in a stable support position.