With financial help from the Microsoft Robotics Group, Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute has created the Center for Innovative Robotics to help make robotics more accessible to people and businesses.

The center's goal is to make robots that operate on a variety of software, including using the Internet to control them.

"Innovation in robotics is difficult today because the software development costs are so high," said Illah Nourbakhsh, Carnegie Mellon associate professor of robotics and director of the new center.

"People who have ideas for a new robot, or a new use for an existing robot, too often abandon the effort because they lack the specialized knowledge necessary for making hardware, software and sensors work together."

If software development becomes less daunting, he said, more inventors and businesses would be willing to test their ideas and create more innovative robots or applications for robots.

Computer enthusiasts already share software codes over the Internet, but robotics require more elaborate efforts, he said. There's a greater need to share insights in robotics.

For that reason, the center has launched a Web site, www.cir.ri.cmu.edu, where academics, students, commercial inventors and enthusiasts can share ideas, technologies and software critical to robot development.

The center also will use Microsoft's new Robotics Studio -- a set of software tools designed to create robotics applications across a wide variety of hardware. For more information, see msdn.microsoft.com/robotics.

"Microsoft is proud to help Carnegie Mellon establish this new center and online community," said Tandy Trower, Microsoft Robotics Group's general manager.

"Carnegie Mellon's new Center for Innovative Robotics, together with the launch of our new Robotics Studio development environment, will help broaden the reach of robotics for hobbyists, students, professors, as well as commercial developers, across a wide variety of hardware scenarios."

The new center will be housed in Carnegie Mellon's Collaborative Innovation Center and be in full operation later this year.