Raúl
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Microsoft Robots? - 2007/02/26 13:01
Given the recent Microsoft interest in robotics (see our review of Bill Gates article "A Robot in Every Home" [1]), I wondered whether or not they are planning to develop a commercial domestic robot.
I asked this question in the Microsoft Robotics newsgroup:
Hi,
We are starting to use Robotics Studio in our robotics research group and we
are curious about next steps of Microsoft in Robotics.
Is there any plan within Microsoft to develop a physical commercial robot?
What kind? Any tentative roadmap?
Thanks for your feedback.
Raul (http://www.conscious-robots.com)
And I got an answer from Tandy Trower, General Manager of Microsoft Robotics:
We don't have any current plans to create a physical commercial robot. We
think there are good alternatives out there and some more on the way. For
example, we just returned from RobotWorld 2006 in Seoul and saw a number of
interesting robots. Also many of our supporting vendors have new robots in
the works. However, we are having many discussions with existing vendors
about what kinds of features we'd like to see in their robots.
If you have a particular feature set or input on what you'd like to see, let
us know. NS-5 type robots are probably a ways off (though I saw some nice
humanoid robots in Korea). A lot depends on the features and price you are
looking for.
In any case we think it is better for us to focus on creating a great
software development platform for now, network with the existing vendor
community encouraging the right designs, rather than to try to get into the
hardware business.
When I asked about Microsoft plans I was thinking in a kind of pet robot
that could easily interact with other Microsoft products like Microsoft TV,
Media Center, XBox, etc. IMHO there is room in the market for a kind of a new
generation of Aibo-type robots (that could be the seed for NS-5 type robots
in the future).
[1] http://www.conscious-robots.com/en/reviews/robots/a-robot-in-every-home.html
Post edited by: Raúl, at: 2007/02/26 13:02
Raúl Arrabales Moreno. conscious-robots.com/raul |
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