System and method for toy visual programming

• US 10,181,268 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2017
• Issued: 01/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wonder Workshop, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Play-I, Inc.
• Inventors: Gupta, Saurabh, Gupta, Vikas, Elenzil, Orion, Huang, Leisen
• Primary Examiner(s): Amin, Bhavesh V
• Application Number:
  US15/582,924
• Publication Number:
  US 20170236446A1
• Time in Patent Office: 624 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 30/04 using wireless transmission
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36025 Link, connect icons together to form program
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0053 Computers, e.g. programming
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/02 with visual presentation of the material to be studied, e.g. using film strip
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/04 Manual lead through

Abstract

A method for programmatic robot control including, at a user device: displaying a set of icons and receiving a program for a robot, wherein receiving a program for a robot includes receiving a selection of a state icon associated with a state; associating a transition with the state; and creating a relationship between the transition and an event. The method functions to provide a user with an environment for creating a program to control the robot, and can additionally function to control the robot.

Claims

1. A method for programmatically controlling a toy robot, comprising:

displaying a set of icons at a user device remote from the toy robot;

at the user device, receiving, from a user, a selection of a first icon from the set of icons via a drag-and-drop selection method, wherein the first icon comprises an illustration of the toy robot operating in a first state;

at the user device, receiving, from the user, a selection of a second icon from the set of icons via the drag-and-drop selection method, wherein the second icon comprises an illustration of the toy robot operating in a second state;

associating, by a processor, a transition with the first state and the second state, the transition directed from the first state to the second state;

at the user device, receiving, from the user, a selection of an event icon; and

in response to receiving the selection of the event icon, associating, by the processor, an event with the transition, wherein the event icon comprises an illustration of the toy robot undergoing the event wherein the toy robot is controlled based on the first state, the second state, and the event.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to receiving the selection of the first icon, receiving the selection of the second icon, and associating the transition with the first state and the second state:

displaying a representation of the first state connected to a representation of the second state by a representation of the transition.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the representation of the transition is visually associated with a representation of the event.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the representation of the first state comprises the first icon, the representation of the second state comprises the second icon, and the representation of the event comprises the event icon.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the representation of the first state comprises text descriptive of the first state and the representation of the second state comprises text descriptive of the second state.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first state comprises a sequence of programmatic elements, wherein the text descriptive of the first state comprises text descriptive of the sequence of programmatic elements.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, at the user device:

in response to receiving the selection of the second icon, displaying a control input for selecting a parameter value;

receiving the parameter value at the control input; and

based on the parameter value, determining an instruction for the robot to operate in the second state.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein associating the transition with the first state and the second state is automatically performed in response to receiving the selection of the second icon.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending an instruction from the user device to the toy robot to operate in the first state;

at the toy robot, receiving the instruction from the user device; and

at the toy robot, in response to receiving the instruction, controlling the robot to operate in the first state.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

at the user device, receiving a set of sensor measurements;

determining, by the processor, that the event has occurred based on the set of sensor measurements; and

in response to determining that the event has occurred, sending a second instruction from the user device to the toy robot to operate in the second state.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising, at the user device, substantially concurrent with sending the second instruction, displaying an indication that the robot has entered the second state.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the instruction comprises a set of machine code blocks associated with the first state.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the user, a selection of a third icon from the set of icons via the drag-and-drop selection method, wherein the third icon comprises an illustration of the toy robot operating in a third state;

associating, by the processor, the first state with the third state; and

associating, by the processor, the transition with the third state, the transition directed from the first state and the third state to the second state.

14. A method for programmatically controlling a toy robot, comprising:

displaying a set of state icons at the user device, wherein each state icon is associated with a respective state, wherein the respective state is one of a set of states the toy robot is capable of operating in, the state icon comprising an illustration of the toy robot operating in the respective state;

at the user device, receiving from a user, via a drag-and-drop selection method, a selection of a first state icon from the set of state icons, the first state icon associated with a first state;

associating, by a processor, a first transition with the first state, the first transition originating from the first state;

associating, by the processor, a first event with the first transition;

associating, by the processor, a second transition with the first state, the second transition originating from the first state;

displaying a set of event icons at the user device, wherein each event icon is associated with a respective event;

in response to associating the first event with the first transition and associating the second transition with the first state, precluding selection of a first event icon associated with the first event at the user device;

while precluding the selection of the first event icon, at the user device, receiving, from the user, a selection of a second event icon associated with a second event different from the first event; and

in response to receiving the selection of the second event icon, associating, by the processor, the second event with the second transition wherein the toy robot is controlled based on the first state, the first event, and the second event.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

at the user device, sending an instruction to the toy robot to operate in the state; and

at the toy robot, in response to receiving the instruction, controlling a robot subsystem associated with the state to operate in the state.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the instruction comprises a set of machine code blocks associated with the state.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein associating the first event with the first transition is automatically performed in response to associating the first transition with the state.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving the selection of the state icon and receiving the selection of the event icon are performed through a touchscreen interface.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein, for each event icon of the set, the respective event is one of a set of events the toy robot is capable of undergoing, the event icon comprising an illustration of the toy robot undergoing the respective event.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving the selection of the second event icon comprises receiving the selection of the second event icon via a drag-and-drop selection method.