This invention relates generally to pet and child toys and drones. More specifically, the invention relates to an apparatus and method of operation for an autonomous or remotely controlled fetch toy drone for pets and children that is safe to operate and retrieve, extends the fetching range beyond that of a throw-type fetch toy, and also provides numerous other features, such as actuated shut-down and audio broadcast features, as well as video and audio recording capabilities, and supplemental stimuli features.

Aerial vehicles, their structures and methods of locomotion are described. An aerial vehicle may include a fuselage having an x-axis, a plurality of flexible structures emanating from the fuselage that take the form of a feather, wing and/or tentacle, at least one motor, and at least one propeller driven by one or more motors. Each flexible structure may extend from a fuselage in any direction and are used to enhance the observability of the aircraft by moving and/or oscillating within a frequency band and at a magnitude that is more easily observed by and catches the human eye.

A control device generates a first image in which, together with an object in the real world appearing in an image captured by a camera of a robot, a virtual object appears and which presents an exterior appearance of the virtual object while the position of the camera of the robot is set as a view-point. An HMD displays the first image generated by the control device. In a case in which the position of the HMD in the height direction changes, the control device generates a second image from which the object in the real world is deleted and which presents the exterior appearance of the virtual object viewed from a new view-point according to the change in the position of the HMD in the height direction. The HMD displays the second image in place of the first image.

A robot includes a torso, a head coupled to the torso so as to be rotatable with respect to the torso, and at least one processor. The at least one processor determines whether the torso is inclined from a horizontal direction and, in a case where a determination is made that the torso is inclined from the horizontal direction, controls an actuator to rotate the head with respect to the torso such that the head faces the horizontal direction.

Aerial vehicles, their structures and methods of locomotion are described. An aerial vehicle may include a fuselage having an x-axis, a plurality of flexible structures emanating from the fuselage that take the form of a feather, wing and/or tentacle, at least one motor, and at least one propeller driven by one or more motors. Each flexible structure may extend from a fuselage in any direction and are used to enhance the observability of the aircraft by moving and/or oscillating within a frequency band and at a magnitude that is more easily observed by and catches the human eye.

In a robot, a processor updates a personality parameter representing a pseudo personality of an own device on the basis of a personality parameter representing a pseudo personality of another device in a case of an approaching state that is a state in which the own device approaches another device of the same type as the own device within a predetermined distance or a state in which a terminal device corresponding to another device approaches a terminal device corresponding to the own device within a predetermined distance.

An apparatus control device for controlling an apparatus includes at least one processor configured to determine a characteristic of performance sound around a robot that is the apparatus, determine a situation of the robot or a situation around the robot, and when causing the robot to execute a performance coordinated action that is coordinated with the performance sound based on the determined characteristic of the performance sound, reflect the determined situation to the performance coordinated action.

An apparatus control device for controlling an apparatus includes at least one processor configured to determine, as a characteristic of a performance sound around a robot that is the apparatus, constancy of a performance speed of the performance sound or a key of a performance based on the performance sound, and change a pseudo-emotion of the apparatus in accordance with the determined characteristic of the performance sound.

An educational toy (1) includes a self-moving vehicle (10) adapted to move and steer freely on a two-dimensional surface (2) such as a table leaf. A tangible, three-dimensional marker (20) includes at least one RFID tag (21) is used to wirelessly trigger a specific action of the vehicle (10), e.g. turn 90 degrees right, when the vehicle (10) enters a readout range of the marker (20). The marker (20) can be placed freely on the surface (2) and cannot be overrun by the vehicle (10). Thus, the vehicle (10) is instructed to perform a certain action, e.g. take a 90 degrees left turn, using the marker (20). Then, the vehicle (10) moves forward until a next marker (20) is found from which the vehicle (10) receives its next instruction. This enables the educational toy (1) to teach programming during play, which reduces the risk that a user will lose interest.

Provided is a robot device and method of controlling same, wherein the robot device includes: at least one sensor; at least one memory configured to store at least one instruction; and at least one processor configured to execute the at least one instruction to: based on the robot device being positioned at a first position, control the robot device in a first mode corresponding to the first position, identify, based on sensing data obtained by the at least one sensor, a first event of picking up the robot device by a user and a second event of placing the robot device, and based on an identification that a position of the robot device is changed from the first position to a second position based on new sensing data obtained by the at least one sensor after the first event and the second event sequentially occur, control the robot device in a second mode corresponding to the second position.