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Microsoft Developing Robotics Software
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."
Microsoft is writing software for robots? Thank god, this can only mean that SkyNet has finally been destroyed.
Since Sony killed their robotics division.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
What happens with the first BSOD. Will the robot fail to avoid Asimov's First Law if in motion at the time?
Yeah, sure. We all know the robots forced Gates out the door as soon as they became self-aware at 2:14 AM, Eastern time. Ray Ozzie is an android. What else explains the Lotus Notes (or "Notus") interface?
Looks like that "Bill Gates as Borg" icon /. has for Microsoft stories is going to remain relevant after all!
Windows Vista Robot edition?
What "crazy tangent"? Every robotic system I've ever worked with was controlled by software running on Windows (or DOS).
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Last I checked, Gates won't be gone for another 2 years. It's a little pre-mature to say 'before his departure'...
Awesome. This'll give new meaning to BSOD when the robots begin the inevitable rampage. Blue Scream of Death anyone?
Great, now when MS makes programming mistakes, one of these will knock someone's head off.
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get it here
Robotic Overlor-oh, never mind, it crashed...
[]'s Carlos Cardoso - Becoming a brazilian ProBlogger, typo by typo
Alternatively, if there really is this multithreaded, pre-emptive scheduling, determinate time execution, tightly coupled networking, highly reliable, checked Windows kernel and services management system out there, why have they been hiding it all these years?
Pining for the fjords
Microsoft has been experiencing for several years what Google is only now realizing: They're good at a few things, and that's it. Microsoft, feeling the pinch of having essentially only two major products (Windows and Office), wanted to diversify. While they have a near-monopoly on operating systems and office suites, that's the only market in which they have a large, profitable stake. So they try to branch out. Sometimes, they're more successful, like with their mouses. Sometimes, they're not, if you look at the financials of the Xbox. The problem they face, however, is that the markets they want to branch into are already well established. Crowded, even. So MS throws piles of money at it, hoping that it will work. At the same time, Apple and Linux are starting to make inroads in the desktop and server markets. MS sees their mainstay threatened.
Google is similar. They came up with a great product, their search engine. It was so good that it rapidly took a majority of the market, despite default IE settings. But then they stalled. GMail is good, but has nowhere near the market penetration as their search. Maps, groups, IM, blogs, calendar, spreadsheets...the list goes on. Google has some good products, but they're trying to expand into an already saturated market. And now their flagship product is faltering. Linkfarms, SEOs illegitimately boosting their rankings, and spammers are degrading the quality of Google's results.
Now, we're not talking about a mature industry with human-interactive robots. However, this smells strongly of "We need to find a new way to make money if Windows/Office starts slipping"
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Yippie! Now my robots will be able to be taken over by spyware and used to launch a DoS attack on the CIA, just like my Windows box.
Please, for the sake of all that is good, for the sake of mankind, please keep M$ away from robotics. Otherwise when the robots do take over, The Matrix will keep being plagued by viruses and spamware and will be down all the time doing windows updates. Imagine your whole world blinking out in one giant BSOD. I wander how many Matrix-trapped humans will suffer instant heart attacks. That would have to be scary, very scary!
The very successful Mars Rovers, which have no one around to give them a "three finger salute," are based on Wind River's VxWorks RTOS.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Windows CE supports real-time.
... epson's robotics uses Windows exclusively as far as I can tell. Hobbyists have been doing it for a long time. Microsoft has a SDK for programming LEGO's using .net ... all sorts of people have been using windows with robotics, on varying levels.
Lots of places use Windows robots. Just google "robot microsoft windows"
Microsoft today released a beta version for their solution to their ever-shrinking developer workforce: The Developer Upgrade and Creation Kit. Thinly disguised as a "robot modeler" sandbox application, the Developer Upgrade and Creation Kit (DUCK).
A well-placed source said that Microsoft's first robotic product would compete with the famous Roomba room-vacuuming robot. The source added that Microsoft's vacuum cleaner would be the first Microsoft product that didn't suck.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
The END in Near! I can see it now...Robots running amok, pulling the heads off of small furry creatures, killing babies, mameing everything in there path, then, BSOD.
----- I have bad karma for a reason! -----
Microsoft is definitely a newcomer in the territory of designing applications for this market.
/.'s are concerned over high end robotics programming; truly making decisions, neural network based, AI, vision controlled ones, path finding...'top of the heap' applications that are non mainstream and limited to research or hi-tech chemical/petroleum/aerospace industries. I don't know much about numbers, but I doubt that this is makes up a significant market share, even today. So I'm betting Microsoft eyes may be set upon the first option, as most plant floor operations are becoming fully automated even in developing countries.
On the other hand, most industrial robots for Welding/Automotive/Manufacture production are basically soulless drones that follow repetitive sequences of greater/lesser complexity written in ladder logic or some proprietary language; and the "brains" is generally a PLC. Popular proprietary PLC systems (Rockwell, Siemens) rely on Windows based software to download your ladder logic program and update the firmware. So it's still Windows after all.
So in theory, this is a market where microsoft should not encounter much trouble.
I believe most
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forget past mistakes, and condemn yourself to repeat them.
The centralized windows style architecture isn't going to work as well for robotics as it has for PCs. (not that I think it works all that well anyway) After reading K. Kelly's Out of Control, I am convinced that decentralized command is the way to go. A bunch of small dumb parts make basic decisions with influence from other parts around them. MS will create an API to capture the mindshare of robotics developers, and it will work, but when they try to port their OS to robots, its going to fail miserably. It will be interesting to see how they try to price it also. If the robots will have multiple processors, do you have to license each arm, leg, and digit controller separately?
I remember the last time I heard that, it was... oh, about five or 10 years ago.
I read Usenet for the articles.
When it comes to robotics, Microsoft need to understand that they are not electromechnical engineers. There have been many "False Dawns" with the idea of robitics in the home, many problems are down to the fact that the robots need to interact with the most illogical lifeform on the planet - Man! When you consider that the market leaders in robots are mainly Japanise Car Manufacturers, whom only build demonstration models to show off how good they are at building robots. I can think of only two companies that have attempted to sell robots in the domestic market, Sony and its err.. Dog, and Dyson with a robotic vacumm cleaner.
The biggest problem with robots in our homes is safety. No only does the robot have to perform complex tasks that may appear easy to humans, but it also has to ensure that humans do not come into danger as a result. With the kind of blame culture in the West, it would be crazy to think that anybody will enter this market without understanding the implications of a lawsuit. That's why robots are good in environments where human access is restricted, such as the factory or on a space mission.
My advice to Microsoft is simple, continue what you are good at - screwing all those companies (especially those with less ethical business practices) with your high priced Operating Systems and Office Solutions for use in business IT systems. Yes, those of us in the know will continually priase Linux or Apple (and save lots of money in the process by buying a more suited product) and maybe think that the XBox is possibly a good product.
However, if Microsoft think they can bring some innovative to the market, they better get in contact with the high reliability electronics market - robots are not going to be consumer devices anyday soon...
He cited estimates predicting that consumer robotics alone will grow into a multibillion-dollar industry in five to 10 years.
The guy who cited these statistics probably agreed that 640K was more memory than anyone would ever need.
First of all, there's simply nothing to base this on. How many households currently have consumer robotics? Percentage-wise, it may as well be 0%, because it's pretty damn close to that. So how can you possibly predict that consumers are going to buy billions of dollars worth of something that doesn't even exist in anything other than a manufacturing, hobbiest, or neat but useless gadget category?
Before you can make a prediction like this, we really ought to see one or two robots that look like they might do something consumers would want. And don't even tell me about the robotic lawn mowers. Show me one that doesn't involve border wires (most people don't want to be bothered) and doesn't have to be monitored so it doesn't run over the dog/cat/baby. Robotic vaccuum cleaners, maybe, but show me one that has enough power to really vaccuum, isn't bound by a cable, and can navigate a staircase.
Sorry, but I simply don't believe we're 5 to 10 years away from robotics being a "multibillion dollar industry". 15, maybe 20, but not 5-10. I just don't see it happening. Robotics simply hasn't progressed all that far in the past 10 years compared to a lot of other consumer electronics (DVRs, computers, iPods, etc)
They didnt give info on its history in Star Trek. It seems they didnt want to spoil the fun : we are going to see what happens by LIVING it.
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You missed a beautiful opportunity to not make a crappy BSoD joke...
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"
- Charles Darwin
And I quote... Off the back cover of the book, The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil
"Ray Kurzweil is the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence. His intriguing new book envisions a future in which information technologies have advanced so far and fast that they enable humanity to transcend its biological limitations--transforming our lives in ways we can't yet imagine."
-Bill Gates
This single quote has made me go "Hrm... Thats odd." If you are a futurist/transhumanist advocate it is understandable why you would advocate the book. However, a straight faced businessman who happens to be one of the most wealthiest men on the planet (next to that guy from ikea) starts to laude and praise this book at the future... Well... It makes me wonder what Gates has planned.
If you haven't read this book, then get it, put some time aside and give it a thorough reading. I'm sure there are something things that we all disagree with in the book (including myself) but it has to be one of the most logical explanations of the Age of GNR (Genetics, Nantotechnology, and Robotics) we are about to embark in 10-40 years.
With that in mind, I believe Robotics is the next big boom (as the internet was in the late 1990's) and within the next 10 years robotics will have affected us more than internet has. Think Roomba, DARPA Urban grand challenge, unnamed flight, and so on...
I wouldn't put it past Bill to know what is going on here (although he did bungle on predicting the importance of the internet back in the early 90's).
So I think this is an attempt to at least be in the game if and when the robotics boom arrives.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Will the Microsoft robot have the 3 Laws, but then bribe itself to get away with breaking them?? And then let it decide it's own punishment for doing so??
Microsoft will go through the motions, make announcements, hire some people, make more announcements, show a demo, make more announcements... but when it comes time to compete, they will do the only thing they know how to do:
Buy off a company who actually has something to show for their efforts!"
Announcing the new Microsoft Robot - Ballmer edition, equipped with patented Fucking Death Rays(TM). As with all Microsoft products an automatic update feature is included and enabled by default, which will download new listings of people/objects to Fucking Kill(TM) along with other secuity updates. Microsoft Robot, for all your Fucking Bury(TM)ing needs!
(For the uninformed: http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer )
CE does real-time. Not just a marketing ploy. As the AC said (but most people probably won't read) CE is based on a completely **different** kernel than the NT line. Check out windows Embedded which beats RTOS to a living pulp.