To improve recognition accuracy of the recognizing function of a robot.

In the case an action decided by an action deciding mechanism part 103 requires recognition processing, the action deciding mechanism part 103 sends a command to a distance estimating part 111 to the effect that a distance between the robot and a user is adjusted to a distance appropriate to recognition processing. A distance determining part 113 determines whether the distance between the robot and user estimated by the distance estimating part 111 is within a prescribed range supplied from a threshold setting part 112. In the case of determining the distance to be out of the prescribed range, a distance adjusting part 114 sends a command to the action deciding mechanism part 103 to the effect of adjusting the distance between the robot and user. The action deciding mechanism part 103 outputs action command information to an attitude transition mechanism part 104 or a voice synthesizing part 105 based on the command outputted from the distance adjusting part 114. This constitution is applicable to the robot, for instance.

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