Images: Microsoft envisions evolution of robots

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Microsoft Robotics Studio is a Windows-based toolkit that offers simulation runtime technology so that commercial and individual developers can create intelligent applications in a virtual world for a range of products.
The image above depicts a modular robot base with a differential drive, a laser range finder and a bumper array. The second image shows how the table and robot are approximated by solid shapes.

Microsoft Robotics
A close-up of a so-called multi-shape environment entity and its physics model.

Microsoft Robotics
The top image depicts three MobileRobots Pioneer3DX robots with lasers and Lego's Mindstorms NXT, the latest generation of the company's programmable robot toys. See if you can spot what's wrong with the image. The mesh for the Lego robot has 172,000 triangles.

Microsoft Robotics
An example of using a height field entity for the ground, with random height samples every one meter. Different materials can be supplied for advanced outdoor simulations. The red dots in the first image are the visualization of the laser impact points.

Microsoft Robotics

Microsoft Robotics Studio is a Windows-based toolkit that offers simulation runtime technology so that commercial and individual developers can create intelligent applications in a virtual world for a range of products.

The image above depicts a modular robot base with a differential drive, a laser range finder and a bumper array. The second image shows how the table and robot are approximated by solid shapes.

Microsoft Robotics

By Bill Detwiler

Bill Detwiler is Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and the host of Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Prior to joining TechRepublic in 2000, Bill was an IT manager, database administrator, and desktop support specialist in the ...

By Bill Detwiler

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