Microsoft hopes to fire up robotics market

Microsoft has released the preview version of a software tool kit for building robot applications. The software giant now hopes to fire up the robot market in the same fashion that it did the PC market some 20 years ago.

Microsoft officials perceive the robotics market as being on the verge of a rapid take-off, fuelled by the availability of cheap, high-performance hardware components. So far, the market has been unable to take off because of a need for better tools and a common software platform that will let applications be reused on different types of robots.

Robotics Studio, Microsoft's package of tools and runtime software for robot applications is aimed at all types of robot builders, from commercial users to academics and hobbyists.

Writing on Microsoft's web site, Tandy Trower, the general manager of Microsoft's robotics group, has compared the state of the robotics industry to that of the PC industry in its early days, saying fragmented hardware, lack of portable applications and good development tools are hampering growth. Robotics Studio is aimed at accelerating the development of robots for industrial, service and entertainment use.

Microsoft will not be the first company to make such a move, however. Rival Sun has long promoted its Java software for developing robot applications.

Typically, Microsoft's robotics platform will be geared for robots that either run Windows or act as clients connected to Windows PCs, according to the information on its Web site. It will, however, provide technical information so that other software and hardware vendors can make their products compatible with its tools, it has said.

Microsoft Robotics Studio includes a software runtime, or execution environment, that can run in a variety of devices with hardware ranging from 8-bit processors up to 32-bit systems with multicore processors. It also includes visual programming tools for creating and debugging applications.

While Microsoft has provided tools that include a handful of software libraries and services, it said that it is counting on third parties to build on them and extend its platform. Programs can be developed using the languages in Microsoft's Visual Studio and Visual Studio Express products - C# and Visual Basic .Net - as well as its JScript and Iron Python languages.

Microsoft hopes that by providing a common software platform for robots, and encouraging third parties to create compatible applications and tools, it will be able to grow the industry much as its Windows operating system did for PCs.

The software release on Tuesday is a beta version only. The company has not offered a timetable for shipping the final product.