Mobile Dextrous Sociable Robots

The MDS (mobile-dexterous-social) robot is a novel robotic platform that combines mobile manipulation with verbal and non-verbal human interaction capabilities. The robot is roughly the height and weight of an adolescent child,with a strength-to-mass ratio that allows it to interact safely with humans. The robot is designed and built with a collaboration between Xitome Design, digitRobotics LLC (spinoff from LPR at uMass), and the Robotic Life group at the MIT Media Lab. The project is currently supported by a grant from the Office of Naval Research.

The Head & Sensors

The head and sensors are designed and built by Xitome Design

The robot's neck has 4 Degrees of freedom, including a pitch degree of freedom near the base of the neck, in addition to pan, tilt and yaw of the head. The articulate neck enables the robot to express emotions such as fear, surprise, and curiosity. The head and its features can move at human-like speeds to support human-like head gestures such as nodding, shaking, and orienting.

The robot has a highly articulate 16 degree-of-freedom face, allowing complex motion of the eyeballs, eyelids, eyebrows, and jaw. By combining these motions, the robot can achieve a high level of expressivity, with an ability to communicate a broad range of emotions and gestures.

The robot's head is outfitted with a sensory system including foveal cameras in each eye (that move with the motion of the eyeballs), a 3D depth-mapping infrared camera, and high gain microphones for audio localization.

The Base and Arms

The base and arms of the robot are designed and built by digitRobotics LLC, and are based on the uBot-5

The robot is based on a dynamically balancing two-wheeled base, but can be converted into a statically stable platform with the addition of casters. It can move at human walking speeds traversing forward/backward, turning right/left and spinning in place. Each 6 degree of freedom arm is designed with a large range of motion. When controlled for bimanual manipulation, the arms can pick up and carry a 10 pound object with arms outstretched. The arms can move at speeds to support natural human gestures. When used in a coordinated fashion, bimanual pushing, gripping and placing activities can be accomplished. The arms are designed so that the floor around the robot serves as its workspace.

There is a single torso degree of freedom that rotates the entire shoulder girdle.