Tmsuk, Microsoft Collaborate on Development of Robotic Software

Tmsuk Co. Ltd. and Microsoft Co. Ltd signed an agreement to cooperate in the area of robotic software development.

Tmsuk will focus on the evaluation and promotion of Microsoft Corp.'s development tool for robot control software. Meanwhile, Microsoft will provide the software development environment and the marketing assistance to Tmsuk.

A key to the latest collaboration is the Windows-based software (development tool) called Microsoft Robotics Studio for the development and execution of robot control software. Windows falls behind Linux in the robotic development. Microsoft intends to enhance the Windows-based robot development so as to further promote Windows itself.

Industry-academia network Tmsuk's strong point

Tmsuk has experiences of collaborative researches with about 20 Japanese universities (about 30 laboratories) that have accomplishments in robotics, such as Kyoto University and Waseda University.

"Tmsuk knows quite well what kind of programming environment is available at each university," said Masanori Kusunoki, Deputy Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft's National Technology Office. Tmsuk will recommend the adoption of Microsoft Robotics Studio to such universities.

Furthermore, Tmsuk has experiences in commercializing a wide variety of robots including Enryu (Support Dragon), a rescue robot used in the Niigata Chuetsu-oki Earthquake in 2007. The company will develop robotic software by using Microsoft Robotics Studio and feed back the information necessary for updating the development tool to Microsoft.

Microsoft provides development tools

Microsoft will provide to Tmsuk the technical support relating to Microsoft Robotics Studio as well as software applicable to robotic software such as those related to image recognition and machine learning. In addition, Microsoft Innovation Center, a laboratory in Chofu City, Tokyo owned by Microsoft, will be open to Tmsuk. In this laboratory, it is reportedly able to conduct the simulation of moving a robot in the virtual space.

For marketing, Tmsuk and Microsoft intend to cooperate in the promotion activities. For example, Tmsuk's robots will be displayed in Microsoft Robotics Studio's booth at exhibitions.

The main feature of Microsoft Robotics Studio is that it employs the visual programming language. This development tool visually indicates program components such as "read out in a voice" and "move right wheel" in blocks. Thus, users can write programs by arranging the blocks.

September 11th 2007