I thought robotics was stalled

How naive it turns out I was. I thought because robotics wasn't there, in my face, advancing all products, that robotics was dead. It turns out all the problems are being secretly solved. Oh it's no conspiracy, but you have to specifically look for them to see anything more than the Roombas around.

That may just be because of my country, it seems huge leaps in robotics are occurring in Japan. As they say necessity is the mother of invention, it turns out Japan is suffering from too few children being born and so there will not be enough people in the workforce to support the retiring population (they call the problem the graying of Japan). And so they hope to replace a large portion of those retiring individuals with robots.

I also thought robotics was still in the individual hobbyist phase. Programming started out that way as well. With most of the new development occurring as individuals figured out what these crazy "computers" could do. But it turns out I'm behind the times... behold:

The Microsoft Robotics Platform

While I have had no experience with the robotics platform. Nor can I state for certain Microsoft is of any help, I can suggest this parable.

A young monk and an old monk approach a swift-flowing river. The young monk spies the river and begins picking up some hefty rocks to make a bridge. The old monk carries nothing but searches the riverbank as they approach. The young monk tosses his large rocks at intervals in the river, but just as swiftly as he tosses them they begin to be rolled downstream.
"Ahh, wise master how shall we cross the river," he cries. The old monk moves downstream a ways and begins to try to heave a heavy boulder into the river.
"Master, though I trust your wisdom, that boulder will do us no good, we cannot cross on just one boulder and we cannot lift enough of them to make a path. That is why I only chose large stones," the young monk sighs. Dutifully he helps the elder monk lift the rock and heave it into the river. Then the old monk sits, tired from is effort.
The young monk remains standing and says, "Master what shall we do now?"
"Wait," suggests the old monk, a twinkle in his eye.
Hours pass and the young monk begins to notice that some of the rocks, rolling down from farther upstream, are lodging against the boulder. Into the next day they observe a growing outwelling of rocks. Until the old monk deemed it safe to cross.
As they left the far riverbank the old monk began lecturing.
"You see, all the work tossing large rocks could not solve the problem. Individually they were not strong enough to hold the tide, and they could not work together. But one large effort on the boulder, though as you stated it would be impossible for us to use the boulder to cross, left a space for other rocks to cling. To work together and form the bridge, until even the boulder platform was unnecessary."