Microsoft on Wednesday took the wraps off its first commercial operating system for robots, with hopes of paving the way for a broader robotics industry and taking a central role in its development.
Microsoft Unveils Public Robotics Software
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Illegal Operation – DIE DIE DIE DIE
I was thinking the same thing. Its all fun and games until someone gets an eye poked out or blue screen to death. maybe they will release patches for missing limbs or pets.
I wish that some osnews readers were more intelligent than pure MS haters. I own much of MS’ embedded software in my PDAs and phones and they all run admirably well. Instead, my Linux embedded devices (from Zaurus to my 2 Linux phones, 1 PMP, 2 TV-out video devices) are NOT (slow, under featured & tediously buggy). So, before you start your “die, die” crap, use the software, test it and then open your stupid mouth.
Edited 2006-12-13 23:23
“So, before you start your “die, die” crap, use the software, test it and then open your stupid mouth.”
What a lack of humour. It’s Microsoft, after all!
BTW: as an editor, you shouldn’t talk like that. It is you who is opening your stupid mouth.
Edited 2006-12-14 01:25
Yes.
Edited 2006-12-14 02:34
Try untwisting your knickers for two seconds… it was a damn joke.
stop bitching, Eugenia, and grow some humor. Half of those are harmless jokes at Microsofts expense. Stop being so damned uptight.
Edited 2006-12-14 03:32
“stop bitching, Eugenia, and grow some humor. Half of those are harmless jokes at Microsofts expense. Stop being so damned uptight.”
It might be different if the Joke was funny, but from where I sit it looked more like uninformed bias considering that the robots are not even running windows.
What if the tool ran on Linux and someone said: “Oh great, all the robots in the world will clone themselves into an army of similar, but different enough to be incompatible robots and declare war on the closed DNA humans. They will ultimately fail, fighting amongst themselves because they can’t seem to agree on anything or allow themselves to interface with the nescessary weapons becasue they were developed by the closed DNA humans.”
People would call it trolling, and you would probably agree with them.
I’d call that scientology.
actually, I would find that quite amusing.
I’m not biased in one OS direction or another. I use both linux distributions AND windows among various other OSes. I’m not so uptight that I can’t get a chuckle out of jokes about either OS.
Now, as I said earlier, stop bitching, grow some humor and get on with life.
Even as a zealot I’d have to laugh and mod that up. Oh I already did.
On the positive side, a Windows powered robot would probably focus more on culling the world of Linux zealot retards, so I’m all for it.
Hey, before you mod me down, it’s just a joke at Linux retards expense. Ha ha ha. Grow some humor! Stop being so damned uptight! Don’t get your knickers twisted!!
Might have almost been funny if the word retard wasn’t such a slur against the mentally challenged.
Eugenia, deary me…
So you have a couple of PDA’s that work and Linux ones that don’t, somehow that means we can’t poke fun at MS…
I have a Mac here that runs it’s OS “admirably”, and XP on a few boxes that don’t. Am I allowed to poke fun at MS?
I think we can take it as a joke (right now) as most hobby robots struggle to move, let alone kill people… I think the intent of the post was that MS is infamous for it’s less than stable software (no finger pointing as to why), so the fact that an OS is being written by them for robots lends itself to jokes don’t you think?
I’m guessing you are just very tired and have had a long day huh…
@thavith_osn
I’m guessing you are just very tired and have had a long day huh…
Or maybe it’s because it’s mostly humorless drivel. It was sorta funny in the late 90ies. Times have changed.
“Or maybe it’s because it’s mostly humorless drivel. It was sorta funny in the late 90ies. Times have changed.”
Robots are so 90ies too… nanites are the new big thing! Less is more… or something like that.
Some people here need to get a life, the ones who don’t see the “joke”.
Maybe you didn’t find it funny, I for one thought it mildly humorous at best, but I could see where it came from and basically would have ignored it and moved on to the next blogg except Eugenia decided to try and “censor” peoples thoughts by basically telling everyone not to make fun at poor ol’ MS’s expense (she has it working on PDA’s didn’t ya know)…
You don’t think I get sick of hearing the same old drivel reguarding Macs for instance, “they are expensive”, “they don’t run my software” etc. etc. I just put it down to ignorance and move on.
Maybe some people here need to learn to do the same perhaps…
@thavith_osn
It’s spam. It’s the equivalent of /.’s infamous “in Soviet Russia, X does you!” and the old “BSD is dying. Netsomething confirms it…”
At least be creative and come up with new ones. Geez…
I experience is exactly the other way around. I used to be a huge MS fan until they drop support for hardware I had, killed stacker by copying their software, crashed my computer during my internship, and killed the market for (good) PDA’s.
I used to own a Palm V. Never had any problems with it. It never crashed. I was speedy as well.
Then I had to buy a new one and since everybody was using Windows Mobile I though I should as well. Thinking: If everybody is using it: it can not be that bad. I was horribly wrong. The thing freezes for reasons I can not comprehend, looses data and is memory hungry. And lets not talk about the User Interface…
Sorry just needed to unload.
(As you can now guess: I run Linux now)
“So, before you start your “die, die” crap, use the software, test it and then open your stupid mouth.”
Wait a second while I go get my MedBot. :O)
Edited 2006-12-14 14:12
Bravo Eugenia
You tell’em like it is.
I, too, am tired of the MS jokes. Were they at least funny, they’d be somewhat tolerable.
But it’s the same joke, rinsed and repeated endlessly.
The MS bashing is long passed the point where it’s taking away from discussion.
I do agree with most replies here, they were just jokes, though some have their bit of serious criticism embedded.
And I think that your last sentence was uncalled for. As a moderator, you should know better. I even pondered on modding you down, but then decided that it was not a direct attack, and so a mod down wasn’t justified. But… it was close.
I use Windows, Linux, I used OS/2, Atari TOS, and some others, and I can say much of the fame that Microsoft’s OSes have is indeed justified. I also say that the last few versions of Windows (2k and XP) are very good, *if* run on decent hardware. But, still, they do have their major quirks.
Still, they are jokes, and they were taken as such.
I own much of MS’ embedded software in my PDAs and phones and they all run admirably well.
Good for you. None of mine ever did.
Instead, my Linux embedded devices (from Zaurus to my 2 Linux phones, 1 PMP, 2 TV-out video devices) are NOT (slow, under featured & tediously buggy).
Is that a reflection on Linux itself, or on some of the poor software implemented on top?
I think that a joke at Microsoft’s expense is warranted. It’s pretty clear that Microsoft has looked at the potential of the robotics market (or what they think is the potential) and thought “Oh my God, we have to be a part of that!” like they always do, and created a new robotics department with another new General Product VP Manager Evangelist etc. etc.
Sadly for them, the Far East, and the Japanese in particular, are already country miles ahead where robotics is concerned, and the software is already there.
I want to control my robot i dont want my robot to control me i want an opensource robot
I have the feeling that opensource would actually lead to them taking over… Just think if they started trying to make improvments to their own os code.
While you wouldn’t want to trust your life with it, that pretty much goes with any robotics anyways. And, like the cnc mill/router business, which is one of the most accessible type of robotics today (save for toy stuff), the more industrial, reliable stuff will be very heavy duty components like fanuc controls, and similar.
However, as fanuc and similar are very expensive compared to pc controls, microsofts entry might help bring those costs down, which is good for everyone.
GE/Fanuc, Siemens, Allen-Bradley, etc. are all high end controllers that are industrially rated and meant to have 10-20 year lifecycles.
If you want a cheaper ‘controls’ soluction, there are a ton of PLC manufacturers out there and you can get a small PLC w/ 10-20 I/O points for around $100 bucks and free programming software.
I already see enough industrial equipment with operator interfaces running Windows. Nothing like having to shut down a 1.5 million dollar machine to wait for the crappy personal computer to reboot…
Keep PC’s at home where they belong. They have no place in industrial control as far as I’m concerned. Luckily the article says that the target for this robotics software is aimed at hobbyists.
i am not overly thrilled about this but microsoft has it’s right to pursue this venture just like any other company does. Microsoft entering a new market does not immediately mean monopoly or antitrust.
I do not personally like microsoft, but i have to give credit where credit is due and while some of their products suck some are good, and at the very least……. this gives the oss community and other companies something to shoot for (the underdog usually wins given enough time)
Edited 2006-12-14 00:31
“Microsoft Unveils Public Robotics Software”
Oh, that explains it…
http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/11/honda-asimo-takes-a-nasty-fall/
😉
Anyone remember The Terminator movies… Now we know what causes/caused Judgment day!
We have KUKA robots where I work. They run KUKA’s “robot” software (the part that understands what a robot is) in a VxWorks environment alongside Windows 95 for the GUI/HMI.
We have had a large share of Blue Screens, but almost all were directly atributable to hard drives or motherboards (big problem with bad capacitors). Nothing that BSD/Linux/name-your-OS-or-kernel could handle much better. KUKA did design their systems well, in that the VxWorks part that runs the robot keeps on chugging and running production, even though the teach pendant shows nothing but a BSOD. Well, until such poing that the robot requires user interaction for some specific faults.
This thing Microsoft seems to be doing appears more geared to home/hobby use, not industrial. Not yet, anyhow….
This thing Microsoft seems to be doing appears more geared to home/hobby use, not industrial. Not yet, anyhow….
It’s both.
Here’s the current partner list:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics/Partners/Partners/default.aspx
and general product/technology info:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics/
Also, beyond robotics, this represents the release of the Concurrency and Coordination Runtime (CCR).
http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=219308
I for one….
am staying the hell away from any Microsoft powered robots.
I for one welcome our new virus ridden Microsoft robots overlords :p
you can build robot with gumstix product
http://www.gumstix.com/
really great product not really expensive and very powerfull
you can put nanovm to program in java..
Something like this has needed to get the hobbyist robotics industry off the ground for a while.
You can develop and program your robots and set them loose in a virtual world that is a little like a game engine with realistic physics (http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics/learn/SimulationTutorials/Tutori…)
The result is that you can work through a good portion of the design before buying a bunch of parts and ending up not using them.
It also enables people to share projects and code more easilly so that not every robot needs to be started back form square one.
The tool is free and should allow community effort and sharing to creating some fairly cool projects.
Also, the robots don’t run Windows, just the tool they are developing with is Windows based, so this make the BSOD lines a little pointless.
You can find the app and some tutorials for free here: http://microsoft.com/robotics/
It would seems like MS may have gotten something right with this and suprisingly enough, might actually also be the first to market.
Something like this has needed to get the hobbyist robotics industry off the ground for a while.
The hobbyist robotics industry is already miles off the ground, and the Far East has left everyone behind.
It would seems like MS may have gotten something right with this and suprisingly enough, might actually also be the first to market.
I’m afraid not. As usual, Microsoft is just trying to follow everyone else.
I have to aggree with you here. I’m kinda a Linux-opensource fanatic, but as far as I know no one jumped up to make an opensource robot-OS.
Soon it probably will occur, and I’m not sure its the best thing. whats more important for robotics developement is standardization on hardware. Sensors, motors, hydraulics…etc. The interesting thing is that the market is really much bigger than most people would think once we can make rudimentry robotics that translate data from the physical human world into a database. Such a machine would be a cabinet of sorts where you just place all your files and the robot organizes both the physical data and scans it to a huge database full of all kinds of meta-data. so not some futuristic clerk robot named annie.
In fact something so anti-climactic could revolutionize libraries, federal inteligence agencies, storage lockers. There are many ways in which such a standarization could lead to an explosion in the market.
Or it could just lead to the ridicule of MS for being so outlandish in it’s frivolous pursuits. ie, I-bob? who the f–k thought that that was a good idea? lol. well alls hoping the market does something decent for microsoft, just as long as MS aggrees to follow open standards. You know the ones every other computer in the world follow and allow for products to work w/each other?
It would really suck to have a houshold robot (even a house hold toy like teddy from A.I.) that refused to work w/you unless you downloaded vista and forty gigs of vista updates. other wise it would just pretend to be broken. it’s reverse psychology at it’s worst. :p
Off topic
Years ago I read an article about, producing intelligent or at least less brittle more behaviorally flexible robots by using Darwinian like evolving programs, does anyone know what happened to the project?
On Topic
Giving school design tech departments, hobbyists etc a tool to control their creations can’t be a bad thing, and nor would seeing the open source alternatives. The DIE, DIE comment, I have to admit made me laugh but walking into a walls seems more likely.
Of course, in order to compete with VxWorks and other realtime operating systems, Microsoft is going to have to invest in making their embedded software truly realtime.
Of course, in order to compete with VxWorks and other realtime operating systems, Microsoft is going to have to invest in making their embedded software truly realtime.
Windows CE is a true hard realtime OS.
Windows CE is a true hard realtime OS.
Are you sure? Because it certainly doesn’t seem so from the literature.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/wce/plan/realtime.mspx
It’s the Bone-Chilling Spinal Severing by electrically actuated claw of Death.
Biddy biddy biddy, Hiya, Buck!
Oh, Gawd, you are so funny! Do you do stand-up?
With Microsoft’s penchant for changing standards to their own advantage, they’ll probably push to change the 3 laws of robotics to avoid lawsuits.
Lighten up, Eugenia.
Anything can happen , this maybe one of the possible thing that may happen.
The virus-infected robot may do thing that out of control , like hurting human.
Here’s a cool intro video regarding MS Robotics Studio ( I got the link from the slashdot thread on this):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics/media/MSRS_IntroToSim_300K.wvx
I’m half-tempted to get the Lego robot ($250) so I can play around with this stuff. 🙂
http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=8527
There’s also the Microbic Viper Robot, for only $90 (but the Lego one looks cooler):
http://blogs.msdn.com/coding4fun/archive/2006/12/01/1192168.aspx
Edited 2006-12-14 21:51
I suggest that the very first Microsoft-powered robot be called “Bob” ….. 😉
Yeah yeah, it’s all fun and games until MS decides to create the Borg. This is the first step towards their domination of the human species.
;P