Concurrent with Microsoft Corp.'s official release of its inaugural robot software development kit, two ISVs this week showed off tools to help bring the Windows-based environment into the business mainstream.
The availability for download of Microsoft Robotics Studio 1.0, a .NET-based development kit that combines a visual programming language with 3-D and simulation tools, is yet another small step forward in the software giant's move to cast its shadow far and wide across the commercial and consumer landscapes. Some 30 companies -- spanning the industrial manufacturing, educational, and entertainment markets -- are said to be in the midst of creating products that use the development and runtime platform, according to a Microsoft release.
At the time Robotics Studio was announced, a handful of companies, including CoroWare Inc., KUKA Robotics, and LEGO Systems, previewed technology built with the assistance of Robotics Studio. This week, CoroWare and KUKA took another step forward by announcing toolsets and robot prototypes, which will roll out in 2007.
CoroWare, for instance, unveiled Robotics PlusPack, a collection of applications, services, and tools that extend Robotics Studio. The attraction of the Microsoft development platform for CoroWare and other ISVs, is that it moves development away from proprietary programming formats. The development platform supports a variety of programming languages and hardware, such as those used in small commercial robots. But some development gaps remain, which Microsoft partners are hoping to fill.
For example, "there are no directory services built-in to Robotics Studio," said Lloyd Spencer, CoroWare's president, in an interview with Managing Automation. To that end, CoroWare's Robotics PlusPack includes a Global Directory Service which tracks robot systems and services used locally or across a network.
"When it comes to finding and addressing different robotic platforms, it's hard to do," Spencer said. "Creating a directory service makes it easy to find systems." PlusPack also includes virtual assets that enable a programmer to simulate an environment -- such as an office, including furniture and people.
CoroWare's PlusPack will be available early next year, as an add-on to Microsoft Robotics Studio -- which will cost commercial robot developers $399 for a license. Microsoft is making Robotics Studio available free to hobbyists, students and academics, the company said.
KUKA, meanwhile, announced a simulation application, called the Educational Framework, which also will be introduced early next year. The framework is designed as a tool to teach students at universities how to create robot control programs. "KUKA's ultimate goal is to find an operating platform for robots that is as simple as simple can be for the end user," said Kevin Kozuszek, KUKA's director of marketing, in an interview. "By working with Microsoft Robotics Studio, we are saying that we know the future of robotics is in the consumer arena ... as opposed to running in the industrial world as they are now. The initial test for KUKA is in the educational market. We are training engineers to use the robot so when they get out of school they'll know how to use a robot in a [factory]."
Or, perhaps outside the four walls of the factory. KUKA has a prototype of a 14-pound lightweight robot which can be programmed to do virtually anything. "It could sit on your desk and you could teach it to sharpen pencils all day," Kozuszek said.
Indeed, the future of robotics is not necessarily in the industrial environment. And the commercial market is likely where Microsoft Robotics Studio will take hold, especially given the big robot vendor's existing investment in technology.
"Traditionally, the controller is tightly integrated to the robot and many [vendors] have their own proprietary code based on kinematics specific to the machine," said Dick Slansky, an analyst with ARC Advisory Group, in an interview. "The robot itself has a long life, and the basic functions don't change that much."
As a result, industrial robot makers will not see an immediate need to move to a new development platform, he pointed out. In addition, these vendors likely will cite safety as a reason why they can't switch to an open development platform that could make changing a program too easy -- and lead a large industrial robot to cause an accident in the work cell, Slansky noted.
Microsoft likely will have success penetrating commercial markets, such as toy robots or robots in the home used as personal assistants, Slansky said. But even that could take time. "Looks to me that [the Microsoft initiative] is confined right now to academia and hobbyists," he concluded.