Microsoft Research
Faculty Summit 2007
Tandy Trower
Microsoft Robotics Group
Cynthia Breazeal
MIT Media Lab
A Quick Review
Great excitement and potential
Motivator for science and math
Diverse community and skill set
Excellent thought leadership
Solving hard problems
Accessible hardware technology
Great investment and expectations
worldwide
“Something’s going to happen…something
wonderful.” - Dave Bowman, 2010
Market Size ($1,000s)
$66.4B
$24.9B
$11.0B
$5.6B $5.7B
Service & Personal
Robotics Market
2000
$0.6B
2005
$5.4B
2010 $17.1B
2025 $51.7B
1995 2000 2005 2010 2025
Year
Source: Japan Robotics Association
* Excludes Low Level Electronic Toys
Fragmented hardware
Limited tools and technologies
Too complex/too much expertise required
Lack of reusability
Difficult to provide for reliability
Difficult to transfer skills/experience
Lack of key applications
Similarity to early PC industry!
A development platform for the robotics community,
supporting a wide variety of users, hardware, and
application scenarios.
Runtime
• Coordination and
concurrency library
• Services based
framework
Authoring Tools
• Visual Simulation
Runtime and Editor
• Visual Programming
Language
Services and Samples
•
•
•
•
Samples and tutorials
Robot services
Robot models
Technology services
Key runtime features
Concurrency and Coordination Runtime (CCR)
Simplifies writing asynchronous applications while
avoiding the complexity of manual threading, locks,
semaphores, etc.
Decentralized Software Services (DSS)
A lightweight services oriented application model (SOA)
that supports REST-style (Representational State
Transfer ) programming model
Services Abstraction
Services can represent any computation
Hardware: sensors, actuators, …
Software: UI, storage, …
Aggregation: sensor fusion, mash-ups, …
Separates state from behavior
No private, hidden APIs
UI can be defined at point of consumption
Reuse through composition
Partners, alternate contracts
Benefits of services programming model
Easy access
Monitor and access software components state while
the application is running
Isolation/Resiliency
Discover, create, terminate, and restart software
components while the application is running (without a
rebooting)
Distributed
Applications can run locally and across the network
Scalable, composable, reusable
Accommodates interaction with a wide variety of
hardware and software components
Many choices for creating robot
applications
Using a Web browser
Inspect/change service state
Visual Studio and .NET support
C#
C++
VB.NET
IronPython
Visual Programming Language
Dataflow diagrams
Drag and drop
Services as blocks
Messages as
connections
Extensible
Notifications
Novice to expert
Visual Simulation Environment
High resolution 3D rendering
Visual and physics views
Integrated software physics
Virtual robots respond like their
real-world counterparts
Enables fast prototyping and
debugging
Port code from sim to real robot
with no changes
Makes technology accessible
Easily extensible
Making it easier to get started
Over 30 tutorials
Basic input and output
Autonomous navigation
Services for popular robots
Libraries for useful functions
Camera capture, speech synthesis, GPS
Supports standalone and distributed
processing scenarios
Connected
operation
(remote execution on PC)
Disconnected
autonomous operation
(with optional networked monitoring)
Distributed execution
(execution across compute units)
Great press coverage
45+ original articles
Broad industry
adoption
100K+ downloads
Licensing
Free for non-commercial
$399 for commercial
license
“…there is really
nothing like this…”
Sebastian Thrun,
Stanford University
Support for Windows CE and Windows
Mobile devices
Visual Programming Language
improvements
User interface enhancements
C# compilation
Printing support
Visual Simulation enhancements
Shadows and lighting enhancements
Simulation support for iRobot Create
New Manifest Editor
More services and examples
iRobot Create, color tracking, face detection, gesture
recognition, speech recognition, UPnP device
detection, SQL database access, RSS/Atom
updating, IP camera
Simulation competition
Preview download available at
www.microsoft.com/robotics
Modeled on
iRobot Create
ICOP Ebox 2300
Logitech QuickCam Pro 5000
Actual hardware specs and
services also posted
Featured at MEDC 2007
Sim code ported to
actual hardware
http://blogs.msdn.com/mikehall/archive/2007/05/03/medc-2007-robotics-studio-final.aspx
Preview download available at www.microsoft.com/robotics
Simulated player robot interchangeable
Simulated Robosoft robuDog available at
http://www.robubox.com/robosoft/data/Robocup/RobocupHome.jsp
New Platforms
Announced CES January 2007
32 built-in sensors
Bump sensors
Cliff sensors
Wall sensor
Drop sensors
IR sensor
25-pin expansion port
Optional BlueTooth (third party)
$130
1.2 GHz PC-based processor
Expandable
Multiple digital and analog inputs
Space for mounting components
WiFi (802.11G)
Batteries ARE included
Optional 4 DOF arm
$2800 - $3500
Celeron 600 Mhz to 1.4 GHz Pentium
processor
Front and rear ultrasonic sensor ring
512 Mb - 2 to 4 Gb Compact Flash
Options
6 DOF arm
URG-04LX LRF
CMUcam3
Pan-tilt color camera
Docking station
WiFi
$5000 - $10000
Microphones
Cameras
Speaker
Full Body
“Sensitive Skin”
Embedded PC
w/802.11g
Quiet Back-driveable
Actuators
Inertial Measurement
Unit
Just a Few More Examples
Institute for Personal Robots in Education
Tucker Balch and Douglas Blank
Georgia Tech and Bryn Mawr
Center for Innovative Robotics
Illah Nourbakhsh
CMU
Mobile manipulation platforms
Rod Grupen
U Mass Amherst
Urban Search & Rescue simulation
Stefano Carpin
U C Merced
Just a Few More Examples
Manipulation in unstructured environments
Chetan Kapoor
U T Austin
Interfaces for upper limb exoskeletons
Jacob Rosen
UW
Sensor mapping in the home
John Williams
MIT
ManyCore/Multiprocessor
Distributed Processing
Verifiable
Composability
Loosely-coupled
Asynchronous
Concurrent
Financial transaction processing
Scientific modeling
Sensor networks
Home automation
Server management
Composable
Decentralized
Resilient Systems
Make robot application development
easier for everyone
Create a stable, open environment that
encourages others to share and
contribute
Enable the creativity and collaboration
of the community and thereby the
success of the emerging market
Energy and pace of personal robotics
continues
Microsoft’s software investment in
community also continues
Platform, technologies, and tools
Curriculum
Motivating scenarios
Building relationships and partnerships
Download from:
http://www.microsoft.com/robotics
© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.
The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market
conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.