The Personal Robots Group of MIT Media has developed robots “that possess a combination of mobility, moderate dexterity, and human-centric communication and interaction abilities”. This class of robots are called “MDS” for being Mobile/Dexterous/Social.

The purpose of the research? Human-robot interaction, teaming, and “social learning”.  These robots are very expressive and make human-like expressions on their face for different moods.

MIT is responsible for the overall design. University of Massachsetts at Amherst developed the mobile manipulator while the system integration is handled by Xitome Design.

[source: mit.edu]