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DarwinBot is a surrogate play partner for man's best friend
The problem facing Microsoft developer Jordan Correa and his wife was hardly an uncommon one. They both have full time jobs (that's not the problem), but they also have an adorable dog Darwin that is left alone for about eight hours each day. Correa decided to keep his pup active and virtually bridged their physical divide by building his own telepresence robot using Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio, a Kinect and a pile of other parts. Jordan can connect to his pup by dialing into the bot via Skype, allowing him to bark commands, pilot it around the house with an Xbox 360 controller and even play catch using the integrated ball launcher. The Parallax-powered platform can even dispense treats and autonomously retrieve the ball with a retractable arm. To see DarwinBot in action check out the video after the break.
Microsoft Surface-controlled robots to boldly go where rescuers have gone before (video)
Ready to get hands-on in the danger zone -- from afar? That's precisely what an enterprising team of University of Massachusetts Lowell researchers are working to achieve with a little Redmond-supplied assistance. The Robotics Lab project, dubbed the Dynamically Resizing Ergonomic and Multi-touch (DREAM) Controller, makes use of Microsoft's Surface and Robotics Developer Studio to deploy and coordinate gesture-controlled search-and-rescue bots for potentially hazardous emergency response situations. Developed by Prof. Holly Yanco and Mark Micire, the tech's Natural User Interface maps a virtual joystick to a user's fingertips, delegating movement control to one hand and vision to the other -- much like an Xbox controller. The project's been under development for some time, having already aided rescue efforts during Hurricane Katrina, and with future refinements, could sufficiently lower the element of risk for first responders. Head past the break for a video demonstration of this life-saving research.
Multi-robot command center built around Microsoft Surface (video)
While we've given up on ever winning an online match of StarCraft II, that doesn't mean top-down unit control schemes are only for nerds in their mom's basement with their cheap rush tactics and Cheeto fingers and obscene triple digit APMs (we're not bitter or anything). In fact, we kind of like the look of this robot control interface, developed at UMass Lowell by Mark Micire as part of his PhD research. The multitouch UI puts Microsoft Surface to good use, with gestures and contextual commands that make operating an unruly group of robots look easy, and a console-inspired touch control setup for operating a single bot from a first person perspective as well. There are a couple videos after the break, the first is Mike operating an army of virtual robots, using Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio to simulate his soldiers and environment, but the second shows his first person UI guiding a real robot through a maze, in what amounts to a very, very expensive version of that Windows 95 maze screensaver.
Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio: for now on, it's a free download
We've seen plenty of interesting projects roll out of Microsoft's Robotics Studio, but the Robotics Developer Studio package of programming and design tools has not been the smash success that the company had hoped. In a move to expand its user base and drum up grass roots support, the company has done something that might have once been unthinkable: As of today, they're giving away the store, making the RDS available as a free download from the company's website. "We decided to take out all of the barriers that today our users might have in order to help them build these new technologies," Stathis Papaefstathiou, the head of the robotics studio, told IEEE Spectrum. Finally, a little help for the DIY robotics enthusiasts out there! Hit the source link to get started.
