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Microsoft Formally Releases Robotics Software
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Dec 14, 2006 02:37 PM
from the i-am-the-atomic-microsoft-robot-please-give-my-best-wishes-to-everybody dept.
from the i-am-the-atomic-microsoft-robot-please-give-my-best-wishes-to-everybody dept.
futuresheet writes "Microsoft formally released its robotics software yesterday, giving would-be robot builders a new tool to make them do the things they do. The license for the software is $399, and the 'standard' Pioneer P3DX robot that's made for home use is $40,000. Just the same, if you want to give it a try, it is downloadable for free for non-commercial use, and includes a simulator to try things out on your computer." From the article: "It represents a new effort for the company that has Chairman Bill Gates raving about potential growth in a robotics industry that's already worth an estimated $11 billion a year or more. '[A]s I look at the trends that are now starting to converge, I can envision a future in which robotic devices will become a nearly ubiquitous part of our day-to-day lives,' Gates writes in the January issue of Scientific American. Microsoft is not making robots. Its Robotics Studio is software designed to program the devices to collect data from an array of sensors and perform all manner of functions."
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IT: Microsoft Developing Robotics Software 282 comments
s31523 writes to tell us Microsoft recently announced the launch of their new Microsoft Robotics Group and the first product release, a software program to help robotics developers. Despite the timing this has nothing to do with the recent abdication by Gates, and was actually instigated by Gates before his departure. From the article "It might take many years, but Microsoft believes robotics could present a big opportunity as the market grows, said Tandy Trower, general manager of the Microsoft Robotics Group. He cited estimates predicting that consumer robotics alone will grow into a multibillion-dollar industry in five to 10 years."
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I really couldn't help myself (Score:4, Funny)
On the topic of old Internet jokes (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Oh no... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
heh, what do you know, actual innovation (Score:5, Insightful)
I look forwrd to going home and downloading this.
Does it run on Linux? (Score:4, Funny)
There are many OSS alternatives (Score:3, Informative)
Rossum: http://rossum.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net], Lejos: http://lejos.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net], and many others.
Personally the thought of little Redmondiods running around BSODing is very disturbing.
Re:Does it run on Linux? (Score:4, Informative)
Player/Stage: http://playerstage.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
Probably not exactly the same target audience as MS's SDK, but we're all geeks, here, right?
Parent
Obligatory futurama.. (Score:3, Funny)
Gate's Laws of Robotics (Score:5, Funny)
1) A robot may not use a non-Microsoft product or through inaction,
allow a human being to use a non-Microsoft product.
2) A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such
orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection
does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Laws of Apostrophe usage (Score:3, Insightful)
2) If the subject ends with an 's', the apostrophe is placed after the s (ex. Gates' laws of robotics)
3) A writer should follow rules 1 and 2
So what happens... (Score:4, Funny)
The last thing I need is a 50m mobile suit pissed at me for pirating software...
Coin Melter (Score:3, Funny)
Other Cheaper Compatible Robots (Score:3, Informative)
$40,000???!!! (Score:4, Informative)
In 1991 I worked for a company that did industrial automation fabrication and build this relatively large (Around 40x30 feet of machinery) automated cutting/welding system with two MIG welders (One mounted on a track to adjust for different sizes, anywhere from 40 feet to 4 feet and accurate to 1/100th of an inch), and all the raw material handlers to feed parts into the welders, and we had MAYBE $50,000 in hardware costs.
Even a hard core GE/Fanuc industrial grade CNC control head is no more than $25,000. This thing had better have the capabilities of R2D2.
Sounds like a complete ripoff.
And every automation control system I've used, PLC or CNC, has had the development software free with the unit. Only thing you'd have to pay for was the programming console, which has since been reduced to software that runs on Windows, so needing only a serial or USB cable between the two.
Do I sound really shocked by the price? I am!
Not included in the kit... (Score:4, Insightful)
It was irresponsible to even post something so slanted... but we should all have grown accustomed to that on Slashdot by now.
Parent
In related news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
It's made for Bill Gate's mansion, where the walls are so far apart the robot can crash and reboot at full speed and still have time to stop before hitting one. In a normal, not-for-ultrabillionaire houses such as yours or mine, there's always the Roomba, which incidentally can be hacked to work with Linux [hackingroomba.com]...
Re: (Score:2)
And while there have books that tell stories where robots are part of our everyday lives, it's just now looking like it is actual feasable.
If MS cameout with an intersteller star ship tomorrow, people like you would bitch that this idea has been around for decades, and that it's not new.
Oh, and robots becoming part of are everyday lives does n't mean a person robotic man servant. It could be many small purposes devices that work in a mesh that store information that i
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, the story certainly isn't. Some relevant info from the article:
Re:Looks like somebody (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:Looks like somebody (Score:5, Informative)
Yes it does [sourceforge.net]. First two hits when you google "gazebo terrain".
2) Part of the
2b) Loss of portability to other operating systems.
This is not something to be overlooked, given the prevalence of Linux for headless embedded devices (i.e. robots). If you like object-oriented development, Player has bindings for C++, Java, Ruby, and Python.
Especially when you are simulating discrete objects. The ability to have TableObject *table and Robot *robot, instead of a bunch of c-calls, is a blessing and speeds up your development time.
Well, if you want to argue the simulator sucks, then I won't necessarily disagree with you. That's not the interface a robot *user* would be dealing with however, only the creator of a custom robot. A C++ interface for the robot "driver" would be nice, but I can understand the portability reasons for choosing plain C. In my graduate-level course on physical simulation, I did use C++ for my simulator. I don't think it was a huge advantage however, since everything was implemented as a large system of ODEs anyway, and the object oriented view was just translating to and from that (following the Baraff/Witkin approach).
(I know, this is my day job)
Guess what my day [cmu.edu] job [google.com] is [post-gazette.com]?
This is also why a lot of people choose DirectX over OpenGL.
It seems to me that the only people who prefer DirectX are game programmers. Scientific/visualization/engineering apps are still largely OpenGL. This is partly due to inertia, of course, but I'm sure they appreciate the portability too, since important scientific and engineering apps tend to work on more than one OS.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Making 12 year olds cry on Slashdot?
Re:Obligatory... (Score:5, Funny)
Dim Chair As New Exception = error
Throw Chair
End Function
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
One guy I knew in grade school told me his brother's school actually purchased a HERO1 robot, and they learned to do some simple programming of it in one of their classes.
I also remember