Looking for a robot that will clean your house and take care of the kids? It’s not going to happen anytime soon according to Tandy Trower, General Manager of Microsoft.

Trower, the founder of Microsoft’s robotics initiative, told a crowd of RoboBusiness Conference attendees this morning at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

“We have a lot of work to do in this area,” said Trower.

While there are great innovations in the robotics field, Trower said that many of these advances are still locked away in university labs and libraries.

So? What's wrong with having a representative from one of the world's largest technology companies helping to advise Governor-elect Patrick on technology?

Andy Updegrove reminds us that Brian Burke, the Microsoft regional director for public affairs, led the fight against the state's effort to standardize on a document format that could have meant a loss of business for Microsoft:

... A new administration needs to earn a reputation for independence from special interests, and adding a lobbyist to an advisory group is a strange way to embark upon that process, especially after Peter Quinn was pilloried in the press over unfounded questions about travel expenses. Although I'm told that Burke announced yesterday at the first meeting of the new working group that he will be participating as a private citizen rather than a Microsoft employee, I believe that Burke should recuse himself from participating in any discussions or recommendations relating to document format standards. ...

Google began with an almost ridiculously simple web site in an age of complexity. At the same time, the most popular search engines including Yahoo! were complicated and verbose portals of information, sorted into detailed categories. Google appeared with little more than a dialog box and very rapidly changed the way people seek out data on the Internet.