Domo is an experimental robot made by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed to interact with humans. The brainchild of Jeff Weber and Aaron Edsinger, cofounders of Meka Robotics, its name comes from the Japanese phrase for "thank you very much", domo arigato, as well as the Styx song, "Mr. Roboto". The Domo project was originally funded by NASA, and has now been joined by Toyota in funding robot's development.

Purpose

Domo was created to test many robotic circuits and commands that are very complex.

Origin

The home of the Domo Project is with the Humanoid Robotics Group at MIT Artificial Intelligence Labs. Its existence is inspired by the robot projects that came before it.

The Cardea Robot Project was a research project led by Professor Rodney Brooks in the Humanoid Robotics Group at MIT. The lab group worked to create a cable-drive brushless Series Elastic Actuator arm mounted to a Segway platform. Jeff Weber and Aaron Edsinger-Gonzales were a part of this research, specifically responsible for the design and implementation of the robotic arm. This collaboration allowed Edsinger-Gonzales and Weber to take some of the research and apply it to a new robot, Domo.

Edsinger and Weber collaborated on many other robots as well, and their experience working with the Kismet page and Cog projects influenced the design of Domo. Kismet was a robotic head developed by Cynthia Breazeal for experimenting with social expressions and cues. Edsinger's role in the project was helping to develop the early stages of Kismet's eye detection module, which allowed Kismet to make eye contact while interacting. The Cog project was intended to explore the way that intelligence is formed through social interaction. The Cog robot was designed to emulate the human body's motor points and limbs and to accept input stimuli from these so that it could use its limbs in a human-like way. Edsinger's contribution to the Cog project was a Series Elastic Actuator arm and controllers for the body of the robot. Though the research direction of these robots is very different from the Domo Project, the design of the eye detection module and the Series Elastic Actuator arm are integrated into Domo's design.

Design

Domo was created in order to research manipulation and interaction with stimuli and machine learning of sensorimotor skills. To accomplish this, the design was required to have particular consideration as to how the robot would be able to interact with unfamiliar stimuli. The research also required Domo to be able to perceive and act upon its surroundings. Satisfying these concerns meant that Domo needed to be able to function without a complete model of the world, rather, it was equipped with the ability to build a model for itself.

Mechanical parts

Domo's robotic head consists of seven degrees of freedom for the upper head which is attached to a neck with two degrees of freedom. There are two eyes, each with a single wide-angle camera. The cameras are capable of video capture at either 640×480 at 30 frames per second (frame/s) or 1024×768 at 15 frame/s. The two cameras tilt along the same degrees of freedom, but have individual degrees of freedom to allow for independent panning. A set of eyelids is included to use for expressions.

Perception

Using the two cameras mounted on its head and the visual processing system, Domo is able to analyze the size and shape of an object to prepare for interaction. This is done without prior knowledge about an object and allows Domo to accomplish tasks in unknown environments.

Learning

Domo's architecture allows for the robot to remember previous sensory experiences. Domo is able to learn about its own sensorimotor abilities and is able to fine-tune the modulation of its actions based on previously accomplished tasks.

Manipulation

Domo's hands were designed to be dexterous and capable of many different grasps and movements. However, this cannot be accomplished without the design of the software system to be adept at managing different controllers for each of its joints. This allows the robot to be able to react quickly and change its arm activity. This is critical for the robot to be able to attempt to perform real world tasks.

References

  • Jeff + Aaron's spinoff company
  • MIT.edu Domo Research
  • Cardea Robot