SEATTLE — At the Microsoft Build Conference here today, Misty Robotics announced that it has selected Microsoft’s .NET Core for use with both its robot platform and related tools.

Misty Robotics said that its Misty platform is built to enable developers to create skills that offer value and utility for personal and business use. The Boulder, Colo.-based startup is a spin-out of connected toy company Sphero. Misty Robotics is financially backed by Venrock, Foundry Group, and others.

Microsoft’s Lou Amadio, principal software architect, and Cyra Richardson, general manager of artificial intelligence and robotics incubation, will be delivering a keynote on “IoT, Robotics, and Automation: Evolution and Opportunities” at the Robotics Summit & Expo 2019 in Boston next month.

Microsoft UWP central to Misty II

Misty Robotics said it is successfully using Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform (UWP) as its central platform for developing functionality for the Misty II robot. The robot maker added that its planned move to .NET Core will give it the latest tooling from Microsoft, as well as cross-platform compatibility and support for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

The .NET Core open-source, general-purpose development platform is maintained by Microsoft and the .NET community on GitHub. It can be used to build device, cloud, and IoT applications.

“UWP has been a great platform for us. It has given us the ability to really focus on what the robot should do, rather than focusing on how to simply get the platform to work correctly,” stated Morgan Bell, head of engineering at Misty Robotics. “Since UWP is using .NET Core, we have the advantage of utilizing most of our existing IP as we look to the future of the robot.”

Developers will have two development tool options when building skills for Misty II. They can get access to high-level capabilities using Misty’s on-robot JavaScript API or the REST API. Developers will also be able to build using a Native SDK for C#, C++ and Visual Basic.

The Native SDK provides deeper access into Misty’s sensor data, commands, debugging, and hardware resources for a more robust way to build a skill. It is being developed on UWP and will migrate to .NET Core. The .NET Core implementation opens the door to more programming languages.

On selecting Microsoft as a technology partner, Bell noted, “Microsoft has been a strong, innovative technology company for many years. That experience is providing us guidance and insight that we’d otherwise have to acquire the hard way. While Microsoft has been in industrial robotics for years, we see Misty II as an opportunity for the largest developer tools company in the world to have a strong presence in the personal robotics space.”