Amazon unveils cloud-based platform to develop, deploy, test robotics applications

US e-commerce leader Amazon’s subsidiary, **Amazon** Web Services (AWS), on 26 November launched the Cloud-based service, AWS RoboMaker, that will help developers to develop, deploy and test robotics applications. The new service, which uses the widely deployed open source software Robot Operating System (ROS), serves as a platform to help accelerate the time consuming robotics development process, Xinhua news agency reported. “AWS RoboMaker provides an AWS Cloud9-based robotics integrated development environment for application development, robotics simulation to accelerate application testing, and fleet management for remote application deployment, update, and management,” AWS said in a statement. [caption id=“attachment_5480781” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The service offers Amazon’ s machine learning technologies and analytics that help create a simulation for real-world robotics development, such as letting robots perform tedious house chores, distribute inventory in warehouses or inspect pipelines and high-voltage wires in dangerous industrial environments. “AWS RoboMaker’ s robotics simulation makes it easy to set up large-scale and parallel simulations with pre-built worlds, such as indoor rooms, retail stores, and racing tracks, so developers can test their applications on-demand and run multiple simulations in parallel,” said the company. It added that the service is now available in Northern Virginia and Oregon in the US and Ireland in Europe before it is expanded to other regions in the coming year.