Microsoft presented a vision of how industrial robots could work more closely with people by harnessing the Internet of Things, cloud networking and 3D sensing technologies, linked through Windows platforms.

In a demonstration at Hanover Messe, an industrial fair in Germany this week, Microsoft and industrial robot maker Kuka Robotics showed an industrial robot arm that can stream movement data to Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform for human staff overseeing production.

The Kuka machine is a lightweight, multi-jointed arm known as the Intelligent Industrial Work Assistant. Its immediate task in the demo is to thread a small tube into the back of a dishwasher. The delicate nature of the operation requires human collaboration and risks damaging the appliance, Microsoft said in a release.

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