Today, at the RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition in Pittsburgh, Microsoft Corp. released the first community technology preview (CTP) of Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008, the new version of its robotics programming platform. Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 contains improvements in its runtime performance, distributed computational capabilities and tools.

Scheduled for release later this year, the first preview of the product is now available for evaluation and testing by developers, customers and partners. Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 is a Windows-based environment that can be used by academic, hobbyist and commercial developers for the creation of a variety of robotic programs and testing scenarios.