With the 'ROS1' software framework for Windows 10 IoT Enterprise, Microsoft is meeting the needs of users for a powerful and functional system for the development and secure operation of increasingly complex robots in an increasingly networked infrastructure. ROS1 offers developers interfaces for the integration of robots with IT and operational technology infrastructures - without having to do without existing and familiar ROS components. Customers who already run their business applications on Windows 10 now have the option of running their robotics applications on the same system. This makes it easier to integrate robots into corporate IT.

ROS1 makes it easy and secure to integrate and orchestrate different nodes - for example cameras, drive systems, sensors for perceiving the environment, control technologies or interfaces for interacting with human users. The nodes of ROS1 for Windows 10 IoT Enterprise also enable integration into Microsoft Azure: developers can connect robots to Azure IoT Hub for centralized management and control, for example, or enrich them with artificial intelligence using Azure Machine Learning or Azure Cognitive Services and rely on proven development tools such as Visual Studio.

More computing needs

ROS1 for Windows 10 IoT Enterprise takes advantage of the significantly increased performance of modern hardware, but can also run on Windows 10 IoT Core and therefore on computers with smaller processors. Among other things, the performance is required for computer vision, i.e. the ability of computers to recognize the content of images and videos. This is a very computationally intensive task that requires powerful hardware. ROS1 with Windows Machine Learning can do this and at the same time provides standardized interfaces for integrating the GPU so that image recognition can run with almost any graphics card.

The 'TurtleBot3' driving robot with camera and laser scanner, which relies on ROS1, will be on display at the trade fair. The robot can recognize people and objects and turn towards them. Such technologies can be used in logistics as well as, for example, as guides in stores, museums or public institutions.