Microsoft Shifts Robotics Strategy, Makes Robotics Studio Available Free
spectrum.ieee.org
spectrum.ieee.org
The MS RDS marketing people are very careful never to mention it, but it's disappointing that this IEEE journalist doesn't survey the space properly. Software from the Player Project is used at Willow Garage, including both the simulators Gazebo (3D with dynamics) and Stage (2.5D with kinematics only). Willow hired the Player lead, Brian Gerkey, to be its director of Open Source software, and more recently the Gazebo lead, Nate Koenig, as a scientist.
In the research community, MS RDS can't beat out ROS or Player, since the source code licensing is so important.