This is an interesting one. Rob Caron suggested it as the perfect inexpensive (as in free) Christmas present for the geek you can’t find a gift for.

Microsoft Robotics Studio does just what it says on the tin. It’s a platform for developing small to medium scale robots. It integrates with the .NET Platform meaning that you can write some of your execution logic using C# or VB within VS 2005 or VWD Express. It’s run-time is service oriented and it seems to be able to take advantage of a fair number of .NET libraries (I’ve only just downloaded it, so I’ve not got the hang of this yet).

The non-commercial version is available for free download from .

The PressPass Q&A on the mini-site’s front page makes for interesting reading. In it Trandy Tower, the Robotics Group’s General Manager, discusses Microsoft’s view of the robotics world and goes some way to explaining why they’ve chosen to release this software now. It seems development started in 2004 and was kick-started by a recognition within Microsoft that robotic development today very closely approximates PC innovation in the 1970’s. There is a strong base of very sophisticated (and expensive) robots being used in industrial development coupled with a large number of home-enthusiasts building robots in their garages. Toss in the rapidly falling cost of processors, sensors and memory and Microsoft think that they’re backing a winner.

It’s already beginning to pick up broad support within the commercial robotics world, so they may well be right.