I am at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Rome, and Tandy Trower (general manager of the Microsoft Robotics Group) gave a long presentation pitching Microsoft Robotics Studio to the robotics research community. The reaction was quite mixed. MSRS has a number in interesting features and it promises to help provide a standard easy-to-use interface for robotics enthusiasts and certain researchers. Most importantly, it is an endorsement of robotics as a field that is on the verge of really opening up and having major impact. This is consistent with the recent Scientific American cover story authored by Bill gates. On the other hand, it is a closed proprietary system and it may reduce the amount of innovation in robotics software, if it is successful. This is probably a natural consequence of the maturation of any field, and in particular a software-intensive one, so it is not necessarily a bad things.
Herman Bruyninckx from K.U Leuven (and head of Euron) gave a very spirited rebuttal to Trower and argued that every time Microsoft enters a new market the range of alternative solutions becomes much smaller and more polarized. He was quite provocative and got a very strong level of support from the audience. At present, there are several alternative open source robotics toolkits and packages around.
Part of Trower's presentation included a brief discussion os MSRS 1.5 beta, which will have more features than the current version. Of course, the open source Player/Stage software which is now widely used was also discussed and a call went out that this is a key time to support that effort. All in all, it was one of the most talked-about events at the conference.
Even if MS Robotics Studio fails to get traction with the research community due to functional limitations, it may bias a whole generation of students who eventually do robotics, and thus become an almost-unavoidable presence.
13 April
2007 By Gregory Dudek at 02:29 April 13, 2007
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I hope this goes up on Google video. I'm also in two minds about MSRS, and at present I'm not using it. If the robotics industry is going to become much bigger than it is today building your system on top of a lot of proprietary software which requires a Microsoft operating system could turn out to be an expensive mistake. Posted by:
Bob Mottram
at April 13,2007 12:31
I think what the "pursits" are missing is the major benefit that Microsoft's presence in this market can bring. Microsoft, given its marketing might can play a major role in legitimizing robotics as a real market and therefore spur other thousands of companies, VC's, etc. to start investing in this area. This can only benefit the whole industry including the researchers. Without a major commercial player, the robotics market will continue plodding along at a snail's pace as it has for the last 30 years. Posted by:
at April 24,2007 11:29
Guess my ears were burning a bit here. Posted by:
Tandy Trower
at May 07,2007 13:05
I had played with the MSRS last summer and also started a discussion on the features ,advantages and disadvantages on the Player-Stage user's mailing list after the initial release of MSRS.Well ,we had a mixed reaction even then as we have now.I believe a great number of people are excited to experiment with the new release of MSRS. Posted by:
Chandan Datta
at May 08,2007 15:31
In respond to Tandy Trower, Posted by:
Baptiste
at May 08,2007 17:47
Tandy, thanks for posting those observations and explanations. Posted by:
Greg Dudek
at May 12,2007 13:53
Posted by:
Gregory Dudek
at May 12,2007 13:57
Please send trackback to:/blog/51/tbping
Microsoft Robotics Studio has Mixed Reaction by Academic Community
Posted by:
OpenSourceCommunity.org
at May 06,2007 09:28
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