SRI International Announces Mapping and Localization Technology for Microsoft Robotics Studio
Advanced mobile robotic capabilities to become available on Microsoft's Robotics Studio
MENLO PARK, Calif. -- December 13, 2006 -- SRI International, an independent nonprofit research and development organization, today announced that it plans to deliver a version of its advanced mapping and localization software for Microsoft Robotics Studio. Microsoft Robotics Studio is a new Windows®-based environment for academic, hobbyist and commercial developers to easily create robotic applications for a variety of computing platforms.
SRI has been a leader in robotic software research and development since the founding of its Artificial Intelligence Center in 1966. Today, SRI continues its leadership in the field with a sophisticated suite of high-level robotic reasoning capabilities that have been deployed on a number of mobile robots.
SRI software capabilities include localization (which enables a robot to determine its position within its environment using sensor information), mapping (which enables a robot to use sensor input to create a virtual model of its environment), exploration (which enables a robot to determine the sequence of moves it will make in order to completely cover an area in the environment), path planning (which enables a robot to compute the best path to take from its current position to a specified target position), and obstacle avoidance (which enables a robot to detect previously unknown objects or environmental features and modify its path accordingly).
SRI will port its existing robotic reasoning software to work on Microsoft's new Robotics Studio platform. "We are working with Microsoft to make our software compatible with Microsoft's new robotic platform," said Regis Vincent, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at SRI International. "This is an opportunity for SRI to apply its innovative mapping and localization technology in a way that will allow others to build quality end-user-oriented applications."
"Over several decades, SRI has conducted advanced research projects and participated in multiple field exercises in autonomous mobile robotics and collaborative networked robotics, and has developed a large collection of essential software functions," said Tandy Trower, General Manager, Microsoft Robotics Group. "Microsoft looks forward to SRI offering its robust mapping, localization, and navigation functionality to the Microsoft Robotics Studio developer community."
Microsoft Robotics Studio environment (http://www.microsoft.com/robotics) is an end-to-end, scalable and extensible robotics development platform that supports a wide variety of hardware. The development environment supports a wide range of programming languages, and includes a new visual programming language, which enables non-programmers to create and debug robotics programs very easily. Microsoft Robotics Studio includes a physics-based simulation environment that lets developers simulate robotics applications in realistic 3D physics-based virtual environments. The lightweight services-oriented runtime supports the execution of concurrent and distributed robotic applications.
About SRI International
Silicon Valley-based SRI International (www.sri.com) is one of the world’s leading independent research and technology development organizations. Founded as Stanford Research Institute in 1946, SRI has been meeting the strategic needs of clients for 60 years. The nonprofit research institute performs client-sponsored research and development for government agencies, commercial businesses, and private foundations. In addition to conducting contract R&D, SRI licenses its technologies, forms strategic partnerships, and creates spin-off companies.
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