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| Science & Technology |
| Microsoft To Make Robot OS |
| 2006-06-20 |
| Microsoft released the preview version of a software toolkit for building robot applications today, pledging to ignite the robot market in the same way it did the PC market some 20 years ago. The software maker sees robotics as being on the verge of a rapid take-off, fuelled by the availability of cheap, high-performance hardware components. But the market is being held back by a need for better tools and a common software platform that will let applications be reused on different types of robots, according to Microsoft. Enter its Robotics Studio, a package of tools and runtime software that the company will demonstrate Tuesday at the RoboBusiness conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A technical preview of the software is available now for free download. It is aimed at all types of robot builders, from commercial users to academics and hobbyists. The company will also announce that it is funding a new robotics center at Carnegie Melon University, due to open late this year. It didn't disclose the size of its investment. Vote of Confidence Microsoft's entry to the field is a vote of confidence that could accelerate the development of robots for industrial, service, and entertainment use. It's not the first company to make such a play, however: Among the software platforms available, rival Sun Microsystems has long promoted its Java software for developing robot applications. Microsoft's platform appears to be for robots that either run Windows or act as clients connected to Windows PCs, according to its robotics Web site. It will provide technical information so that other software and hardware vendors can make their products compatible with its tools, it 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. The tools include a handful of software libraries and services, but Microsoft is counting on third parties to flesh these out and extend its platform, it said. 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. The software released Tuesday isn't ready yet for commercial use, Microsoft said, and it didn't offer a timetable for shipping the final product. Technical previews are typically used to gather feedback that's used to refine the product before it's finalized. Tandy Trower, the general manager of Microsoft's robotics group, likened the state of the robotics industry to that of the PC industry in its early days. Among the problems: hardware is fragmented, applications aren't portable and good development tools are missing, he wrote on Microsoft's Web site. 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 ubiquitous Windows operating did for PCs. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #10 Practically speaking, "house robots" will probably have their 'brains' subdivided into three parts, analogous to the human brain, except that its mid- and upper-brain won't be in the robot's body. It's "primitive" brain will be inside the robot. It will handle I/O, movement, navigation, and hardware diagnostics and monitoring. This is more than enough to use 100% of its resources. The "midbrain" will be elsewhere in the house, something like a very powerful personal computer dedicated to running the robot. It will WIFI with the robot. When you talk to the robot and it talks back, this will usually be the brain you talk to. The midbrain will interpret what the robots sensors read, it will identify objects by size, shape, color, and purpose. It will know how to move objects, including the robot, safely and to a purposeful end. It will also control all safety functions, so that the robot does not damage other things or itself. It will also perform mapping functions of its environment, so it will "know" where it is, has been, and is going. Its upper brain will be available by high-speed Internet. The midbrain AI will interact with most likely a supercomputer AI, so that "learning" will be cumulative with all robots plugged into the system. When a human teaches the robot a new "trick", all robots will have that trick available to them as a situational alternative. The upper brain will at first be like a massive product support staff, with lots of people checking what it is learning, giving it firm rules and flexible rules. Eventually it will have so many possibilities programmed in that fewer and fewer checks will be needed, of situations so unusual that a robot needs additional instruction and judgement before acting. Ideally, robot brain evolution will be something like distributed computing. Since most tasks are fairly rote, once their variables are hashed out, the robot upper brain can move on, not having to re-learn the basics again. Midbrains will have to adapt to new situations, like being put in a new house, but should eventually be able to figure most of it out with a tour like you would give a stranger visiting your house. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-06-20 23:20 |
| #9 When they have Cherry2000 with real...ahem Plug and Play, they can give me a call. -M |
| Posted by: Manolo 2006-06-20 22:22 |
| #8 Hey bill where's my fuckin laws Argghhhhh! |
| Posted by: Asimov 2006-06-20 22:01 |
| #7 Anybody want a Ro-Bob? |
| Posted by: Darrell 2006-06-20 21:24 |
| #6 Memo to self: don't install the Self-Awareness module. No good can come of it. |
| Posted by: WhiteCollarRedneck 2006-06-20 21:06 |
| #5 DUM 1.01a discreet unit market Vocabulary limited to 640 words plus 360 cussers not accessible by Mod 1. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-06-20 18:38 |
| #4 Can't wait to see the effect of viruses on robots. |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2006-06-20 16:48 |
| #3 Should give a new meaning to OS crashes. |
| Posted by: RWV 2006-06-20 16:22 |
| #2 Bah. If you had MS products running, say, your robo-vacuum cleaner it would ask you four times if you REALLY, REALLY want to vacuum the rug before actually starting to do it, then freeze every 3 meters or so. No thanks. |
| Posted by: Jonathan 2006-06-20 16:06 |
| #1 Microsoft? So the Terminator movies were right... |
| Posted by: Iblis 2006-06-20 15:54 |