ABB Connect released!

Yesterday, at the RoboDevelopment event in Santa Clara, Carlifornia we announced the availability of a new developer tool with a very long name: ABB Connect for Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008!

ABB Connect has been developed by ABB Corporate Research and ABB Robotics in close cooperation with Microsoft. Making use of both the PC SDK and RobotStudio's virtual IRC5, this new tool makes it possible to do very neat simulations in Microsoft's robotics programming platform Robotics Developer Studio.

I see ABB Connect as a new and exciting way to learn about robotics and to experiment with ABB robots in a virtual world. It will be really interesting to see what students and others will be able to do with it.

This is yesterday's press release in the New York Times:
>>View Press Release

Sharing ideas for the Developer Section

I'm currently working on some material for the Developer Section of the community. For those of you who are still wondering what you can do with Robot Application Builder, there will for example soon be a couple of short videos that demonstrate how you can program a small application that communicates with an IRC5 robot controller.

If you have already started exploring the FlexPendant SDK, there is a complete FlexPendant SDK application for download in the Content Sharing section. We also plan to publish a series of small applications for RAB beginners.

I recommend you to join the User Forum if you still haven’t tried it. There is a good chance that someone else can help you if you have a problem you cannot solve on your own. Have you noticed that the User Forum enables you not only to create and answer Forum Topics, but also to send a message directly to another member of the Forum? Try it out by clicking Member Control Panel in the top left corner and then Private Messenger.

Why not start by sending a message to me? As you have chosen to read my blog, I figure you’re probably curious to see what will come up in the Developer Section. Please let me know what you are you hoping to find. Your views are extremely valuable for us who develop the products and this portal, so please share your ideas about how we can support you by continuously improving the contents of the portal.

Also, if you have already developed a RAB or OPC solution that is being used in a real robot system in production, I am really curious to hear what kind of robot system it is used with, what user operations it supports etc, and of course also about your experience from using our products.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Welcome to the Developer Tools Blog!

I work as a Program Manager for Developer Tools. You may already know me from the User Forum of Robot Application Builder. I really agree that ABB is at its best when listening to the customers. From my viewpoint, the User Forum represents a good way of learning how the products are really used around the world and how they can be improved. I also think it is fun to give a helping hand on the User Forum, and I have noticed that many of you do too!

OPC Server 5.11 and Robot Application Builder 5.11 have just been released. Both products can be downloaded and used for free. With the 5.11 release, the usage of Robot Application Builder has been simplified. All you have to do to start develop your own operator interfaces for IRC5 is downloading Robot Application Builder 5.11 and RobotStudio 5.11. RobotWare 5.11 and the virtual environment needed for testing and debugging RAB applications now come for free!

I also believe this enhanced Software Support Portal will help us improve the support you need when working with our Developer Tools, as it will be easier to share code, publish tutorials and so on. This blog will be the place for me to share the latest information with you.

I look forward to hearing from you!