Microsoft Releases Robotics Studio

Well, we knew something was going to happen, but we weren't sure what. I'm not sure I would have guessed Microsoft would be releasing a software package though. Yes, as of Today, Microsoft is now an official player in the robotics market with the release of its Robotics Studio.

The software can be downloaded here, and has the following description:

The Microsoft Robotics Studio is a Windows-based environment for academic, hobbyist and commercial developers to easily create robotics applications across a wide variety of hardware.

In this open letter from Tandy Trower, the general manager of the Microsoft Robotics Group, he outlines the three main advantages of the Robotics Studio.

A scalable, extensible runtime architecture that can span a wide variety of hardware and devices. The programming interface can be used to address robots using 8-bit or 16-bit processors as well as 32-bit systems with multi-core processors and devices from simple touch sensors to laser distance finding devices.
A set of useful tools that make programming and debugging robot applications scenarios easier. These include a high quality visual simulation environment that uses for software physics supplied by the Ageia Technologies PhysX engine.
A set of useful technology libraries services samples to help developers get started with writing robot applications.

There's a ton of info to wade through but here's enough to get your feet wet. Here's the Microsoft Robotics Studio blog. I assume the developers will be communicating more via this. There is also a lengthy (one hour) long interview from Channel 9 with Tandy Trower, the head of the Robotics Studio devteam. Bug reports and feature suggestions can be submitted here. The software is currently for evaluation only and is not intended for commercial release yet. Microsoft has yet to announce when it plans to release a final version.

Robot Magazine has good coverage of the announcement along with plenty of others.

Stay tuned for more information as it comes!

Update: For the Anti-Microsoft crowd, robots.net has posted a much less optimistic view of Microsoft's Robotics Studio, along with a full copy of the EULA for the software. They do have some good points. Microsoft certainly hasn't been a fan of open source software.

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Microsoft Releases Robotics Studio

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