A software standard for robots. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. It's been a problem in the robotics community for years. Research labs around the world have gone their separate ways in building robots and the commands to control them. So Microsoft is stepping in by request according to Tandy Trower, general manager of the two year old Robotic Group. The result….is Microsoft Robotic Studio….

"What it is is an application development kit for creating applications for all kinds of robots, for all kinds of people. Everyone from students to academic researchers, to commercial or professional developers, for hobbyists. We try to provide something that addresses just this wide audience for a wide variety of applications. And again, the most significant thing is, for the first time, it's a development kit that will go over such a wide diversity of robots."

And that means a single programming interface can be used for everything from toy robots….to industrial models….

So for example you can use it to develop some applications for something as simple as Legos new NXT Robot, their new NXT Mindstorms, or use it to create applications for PC based robots, or we also have partners from the industrial automation area like Kuka."

Which makes industrial robotic arms. And for hobbyists and students…the good news is the non commercial version of Microsoft Robotics Studio can be downloaded for free. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.