Microsoft Corp. is the unquestioned leader in computer operating systems with Windows but the growing field of robotics relies on diverse programming platforms.

The Redmond, Washington-based software giant last year launched Microsoft Robotics Studio, eying robotics as a potential expanding market of the type PCs once were.

Microsoft Co. Ltd., the company's Japanese unit, said it was forming a technological alliance with Tmsuk Co. to further develop programming software.

"Currently many kinds of robots are made individually based on different operating systems and not all of the newly developed technologies can be adapted to one another," said Shunichi Kajisa, the Japanese unit's chief technology officer.

"We aim to commonise robotics technology by recommending researchers use our Microsoft Robotics Studio," he told a news conference.

Tmsuk President Yoichi Takamoto said: "We've developed various sorts of robots with different partners, but right now we cannot adopt one technology used in robot A to robot B.

"If this Microsoft software comes to be used by many developers, then technological advances in robotics will dramatically accelerate," he said.

Tmsuk, a company originally focused on factory automation in the southwestern city of Kitakyushu, has developed a variety of robots for practical use as well as experimental humanoids, in cooperation with universities and other firms.

One example is a disaster relief robot, which was put to use clearing rubble after a powerful earthquake hit central Japan in July.

Microsoft's Kajisa said the company chose Tmsuk because of its "network of researchers in universities, as well as its past achievements in robotics."

But Atsuo Takanishi, a professor at Waseda University and a leading researcher of robotics in Japan, said it remained to be seen if Microsoft would come to dominate the field.

"We have to try first to see if the Microsoft software can really be used for developing robots with state-of-the-art technology," Takanishi said.

"But I don't think it is very difficult to modify the existing technologies developed with other operating system -- such as Linux -- into a Microsoft version," he said.

Japanese companies have increasingly focused on humanoids, seeing advanced robots as a future resource in a nation whose population is shrinking.

Japan's most famous humanoid is ASIMO, which Honda Motor Co. gave birth to in 2000. ASIMO has danced and dined with dignitaries as a Japanese ambassador of sorts and has been put to use as a coffee-serving office receptionist.

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