In the last years there has been an increasing relevance of robotics which Bill Gates is considering as one of the most important future developments. Microsoft has introduced a development environment for this area early and has recently introduced Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 4.0 (RDS4).
OpenSim represents a freely available open source software system for modeling and simulation of movement. The system is provided by NCSSR (National Center for Simulation in Rehabilitation Research) which denotes a research department within Stanford University, California. The spectrum of possible application domains such as rehabilitation medicine, robotics, or games makes OpenSim interesting.
On September 1st, the Official Google Blog reported that two Android-based Nexus phones have been transported to the ISS in the last manned Space Shuttle mission ST-135. Researchers want to investigate how robots can help humans experiment and live in space more efficiently with Android playing an important role.
Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (RDS) is a development environment used to create robotics applications. RDS 2008 R2 has been updated to offer improved performance, better analysis tools, new simulation sensors, and improved tutorials.
Microsoft recently announced the final release of Robotics Developer Studio 2008. RDS 2008 offers a Windows-based environment for development of robotics applications targeted to various hardware platforms. Most notably, RDS 2008 includes enhancements to help hobbyists and begginers get started with visual authoring and simulation tools.
Microsoft has recently made available for download the Robotics Developer Studio 2008 CTP.
Cogmation, the maker of the development tool robotFoundary and the matching simulator robotSim, has released a Windows version of the suite. InfoQ has had a chance to talk with Cogmotion's Director of Research and Development, Shawn Schaerer.
Microsoft is not the only trying to get into the robotics business by porting the .NET runtime. Cogmation Robotics is using Mono in their flagship product robotFoundary. Even more surprising, they choose to run it on OS X first.
Seeing parallels between the computer industry of 30 years ago and the robotics industry of today, Microsoft is determined to not be left out of the next big thing. For their initial play, Microsoft has released the Microsoft Robotics Studio.
