Introducing M: A Modular, Modifiable Social Robot
Victor Nikhil Antony, Zhili Gong, Yoonjae Kim, Chien-Ming Huang

TL;DR
M is an open-source, modular social robot platform designed to facilitate research by being easy to reproduce, modify, and deploy, with a focus on real-world applications and extensibility.
Contribution
The paper introduces M, a low-cost, modular social robot with a ROS2 software stack, simulation environment, and demonstrated real-world deployments, advancing accessible social robotics research.
Findings
Successful real-world deployments in homes and participatory design
Extensible platform with additional sensing and actuation modules
Effective sim-to-real transfer of interaction behaviors
Abstract
We present M, an open-source, low-cost social robot platform designed to reduce platform friction that slows social robotics research by making robots easier to reproduce, modify, and deploy in real-world settings. M combines a modular mechanical design, multimodal sensing, and expressive yet mechanically simple actuation architecture with a ROS2-native software package that cleanly separates perception, expression control, and data management. The platform includes a simulation environment with interface equivalence to hardware to support rapid sim-to-real transfer of interaction behaviors. We demonstrate extensibility through additional sensing/actuation modules and provide example interaction templates for storytelling and two-way conversational coaching. Finally, we report real-world use in participatory design and week-long in-home deployments, showing how M can serve as a…
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Taxonomy
TopicsSocial Robot Interaction and HRI · Robot Manipulation and Learning · Robotics and Automated Systems
