By Michael Cohn

Microsoft released its Robotics Studio development software Wednesday, upping the ante in the coming robot wars, at least among inventors and manufacturers.

The Redmond software giant is aiming to create a common development environment that will allow developers to create robotic applications for different types of hardware more easily.

Redmond

The software can be used by a variety of robot types, including surveillance robots that can defuse roadside bombs as well as robotic arms that can perform surgery (and maybe sign health insurance forms too).

The software is not just aimed at mad scientists. Among the companies that will use the technology are iRobot, creators of the Roomba vacuum cleaner.

“Microsoft will help us extend the reach of the iRobot Roomba Open Interface to a broader community of developers,” iRobot Chairperson Helen Greiner said in a statement.

She sees Microsoft Robotics Studio helping ignite the robotics industry and encouraging more developers to design new robot applications.

Shares of Microsoft rose $0.02 to $29.44 in recent trading.

Rounding up the Robots

To be sure, getting all the robots out there in the world under the control of Redmond will be no easy task. But Microsoft hopes to make the design of new robots easier in the way some of its other development environments like Visual Basic made programming easier for neophytes.

Redmond

The company first previewed the software back in June at a robotics conference in order to win some cyborg allies to its side (see Microsoft Makes Robot Friends).

Microsoft Makes Robot Friends

Already more than 30 third-party companies, including independent software vendors, hardware component vendors, and robot manufacturers have pledged their support, if not allegiance. California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger has not yet said if he will go along, though.

The software does provide advantages for robot developers, if not for the robots’ hapless victims. Those include a visual programming language that enables nonprogrammers to program robots via a drag-and-drop environment.

Robotics Studio also includes a 3D tool that simulates robotics applications in physics-based virtual environments. The tool relies on the PhysX engine that Microsoft has licensed from Ageia Technologies. The 3D tool lets programmers simulate forces like mass, gravity, and friction, and maybe even bullets bouncing harmlessly off the chest of an advancing robot.

The software also comes with a services-oriented runtime development engine that allows applications to communicate with a variety of hardware, including educational robots and industrial robots, and perhaps one day Furbees too.

The programming tools take advantage of some of the tools in Microsoft Visual Studio and include debugging features in case the robot starts to go wild and attacks its master. Developers can use almost any programming language they are comfortable with, and Microsoft includes its own visual programming language as well.

Coincidence?

Microsoft began working on the robot tools in late 2004, the same year it was hit with heavy fines from the European Union for antitrust complaints, although there was no real connection between the two events.

The current version of Robotics Studio may still need some bolts tightened, though.

“It’s an early product,” noted Dan Kara, president of Robotics Trends, a research firm in Upton, Massachusetts. “We’re talking about the second release of a product. It’s not extremely robust, but it’s getting better.”

Upton, Massachusetts

He noted that Microsoft is bringing in more established robotics technology developers to help out, though, including CoroWare and Braintech. But he sees the software overall as a postive development.

“The other partners will start filling the gap,” said Mr. Kara. “It’s much needed in the robotics industry, where there aren’t a lot of standards. Microsoft is one of the few companies to realize what a huge opportunity the robotics industry represents. Historically they’ve treated the development community very well.”

Neena Buck, vice president of emerging frontiers at Strategy Analytics, a research firm based in Newton, Massachusetts, also thinks the software will help robot inventors.

Newton, Massachusetts

“Until now the robotics community has had to build everything from scratch,” she said. “They didn’t have a good software platform. A lot of people are still hobbyists and researchers, and they build their own software platforms. Now they can build applications without having to reinvent the wheel every time.”

She sees Robotics Studio as a promising beginning and expects Microsoft to keep improving and adding features to the software, which she noted Microsoft rolled out in a low-key way over the summer to build support and garner input from developers.

“Microsoft recognizes that this is the leading edge of computing,” said Ms. Buck.

Tightening the Bolts

“This is part of what I believe helped the PC industry and the web become what it is today,” said Mr. Trower. “Accessibility to a wide audience will allow the creativity to come forth and create the richness we see on the PC and the web today. It’s not just limited to the gurus and the double-E majors and CSE majors. We’re trying to deliver a package that makes it easy to write applications to run on a variety of different robots.”

Microsoft has enlisted universities such as Georgia Tech, Bryn Mawr, USC, and Cornell to create robotics curricula and research projects with its software. The company is offering the software for free to users who want to experiment with it and is selling commercial licenses to businesses for about $400. Currently there are more than 30 companies using the software since it previewed in June.

He believes that offering a common environment for a wide variety of systems like the Lego MindStorm, Roomba vacuum cleaner, Parallax robots, and White Box Robotics PC-BOT can bridge gaps and make robotics technology more affordable and easier to do.

“The robotics industry looks like the way the PC industry did in the ’80s,” said Mr. Trower. “It was fine if you could get something and play with it, but if you wanted to use another kind of hardware, you had to relearn everything.”

He compares the situation to the way the computer industry was decades ago.

“This is a response to the robotics community,” said Tandy Trower, general manager of the Microsoft Robotics Group. “They said there really aren’t good tools out there. We said we have compilers and operating systems, but they said we need tools to standardize.”

Under one umbrella, Microsoft hopes to bring the robot order under control, much like Windows did, if not crush competitors under the robot heel. Whether or not it will succeed will depend on the developers and their cyborg minions.