Students now have unlimited design possibilities with this new tool.

ABB Robotics, the innovation leader in the robotics industry, is pleased to announce the release of ABB Connect™ for Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008. This connectivity package integrates ABB’s controllers and robots into the Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (Microsoft RDS) environment for educational purposes. ABB Connect will allow students to use ABB industrial robots in a virtual environment.

“ABB Connect is a natural extension of our pioneering ABB VirtualRobot™ Technology which was started in 1992. This technology allows users to design, test, program, and validate robotic solutions on a computer with complete accuracy since the virtual robots are controlled by the same software used in the actual robots.” said Bertil Thorvaldsson, Product Manager from ABB Robotics.

Currently ABB utilizes VirtualRobot Technology in RobotStudio™ which was designed specifically for the industrial market and to be used in a production environment. Though the years, RobotStudio has become the most widely used offline programming tool in the industrial segment.

“As RobotStudio grew, we felt the need to extend the VirtualRobot Technology concept into the educational market. When we learned of Microsoft’s intention to create a robotics development tool that can be used by the educational market it was obvious that ABB should support this effort. With the release of ABB Connect, everyone using Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 can now use ABB robots in this development environment” said Thorvaldsson.

Integrating ABB robots into Microsoft RDS will allow students unlimited opportunities for experimentation. "ABB Connect will result in new creative robot cell designs generated from the students’ experiments and innovations. We are eager to see what they create.” said Thorvaldsson and continues; "Generation Y has a new intuitive way of thinking and experimenting in a virtual world is a part of their approach. This is the beginning of a very exciting future for robotics and ABB is proud to work with Microsoft in creating this new frontier. ”

Courtesy of ABB