Microsoft Robotics Studio
Encyclopedia
Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (Microsoft RDS, MRDS) is a Windows
-based environment for robot
control and simulation
. It is aimed at academic, hobbyist, and commercial developers and handles a wide variety of robot hardware.
RDS is based on CCR (Concurrency and Coordination Runtime
): a .NET
-based concurrent library implementation for managing asynchronous parallel tasks. This technique involves using message-passing and a lightweight services-oriented runtime, DSS (Decentralized Software Services), which allows the orchestration of multiple services to achieve complex behaviors.
Features include: a visual programming tool, Microsoft Visual Programming Language
for creating and debugging robot applications, web-based
and windows-based interfaces, 3D simulation
(including hardware acceleration
), easy access to a robot's sensor
s and actuator
s. The primary programming language is C#.
Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio includes support for packages to add other services to the suite. Those currently available include Soccer Simulation and Sumo Competition by Microsoft, and a community-developed Maze Simulator, a program to create worlds with walls that can be explored by a virtual robot
, and a set of services for OpenCV
. Most of the additional packages are hosted on CodePlex (search for Robotics Studio). Course materials are also available.
CCR and DSS are also available separately for use in commercial applications that require a high level
of concurrency and/or must be distributed across multiple nodes in a network. This package is called the CCR and DSS Toolkit.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
-based environment for robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
control and simulation
Simulation
Simulation is the imitation of some real thing available, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system....
. It is aimed at academic, hobbyist, and commercial developers and handles a wide variety of robot hardware.
RDS is based on CCR (Concurrency and Coordination Runtime
Concurrency and Coordination Runtime
Concurrency and Coordination Runtime is an asynchronous programming library based on .NET Framework from Microsoft distributed with Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio...
): a .NET
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
-based concurrent library implementation for managing asynchronous parallel tasks. This technique involves using message-passing and a lightweight services-oriented runtime, DSS (Decentralized Software Services), which allows the orchestration of multiple services to achieve complex behaviors.
Features include: a visual programming tool, Microsoft Visual Programming Language
Microsoft Visual Programming Language
Microsoft Visual Programming Language, or MVPL, is a visual programming and dataflow programming language developed by Microsoft for the Microsoft Robotics Studio. The Microsoft Visual Programming Language is distinguished from other Microsoft programming languages such as Visual Basic and C#, as...
for creating and debugging robot applications, web-based
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and windows-based interfaces, 3D simulation
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
(including hardware acceleration
Hardware acceleration
In computing, Hardware acceleration is the use of computer hardware to perform some function faster than is possible in software running on the general-purpose CPU...
), easy access to a robot's sensor
Sensor
A sensor is a device that measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal which can be read by an observer or by an instrument. For example, a mercury-in-glass thermometer converts the measured temperature into expansion and contraction of a liquid which can be read on a calibrated...
s and actuator
Actuator
An actuator is a type of motor for moving or controlling a mechanism or system. It is operated by a source of energy, usually in the form of an electric current, hydraulic fluid pressure or pneumatic pressure, and converts that energy into some kind of motion. An actuator is the mechanism by which...
s. The primary programming language is C#.
Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio includes support for packages to add other services to the suite. Those currently available include Soccer Simulation and Sumo Competition by Microsoft, and a community-developed Maze Simulator, a program to create worlds with walls that can be explored by a virtual robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
, and a set of services for OpenCV
OpenCV
OpenCV is a library of programming functions mainly aimed at real time computer vision, developed by Intel and now supported by Willow Garage. It is free for use under the open source BSD license. The library is cross-platform. It focuses mainly on real-time image processing...
. Most of the additional packages are hosted on CodePlex (search for Robotics Studio). Course materials are also available.
Components
There are four main components in RDS:- CCR (Concurrency and Coordination Runtime)
- DSS (Decentralized Software Services)
- VPL (Visual Programming Language)
- VSE (Visual Simulation Environment)
CCR and DSS are also available separately for use in commercial applications that require a high level
of concurrency and/or must be distributed across multiple nodes in a network. This package is called the CCR and DSS Toolkit.
Tools
The tools that allow to develop an MRDS application contain a graphical environment (Microsoft Visual Programming Language : VPL) command line tools allow to deal with Visual Studio projects (VS Express version is enough) in C#, and 3D simulation tools.- Visual Programming LanguageMicrosoft Visual Programming LanguageMicrosoft Visual Programming Language, or MVPL, is a visual programming and dataflow programming language developed by Microsoft for the Microsoft Robotics Studio. The Microsoft Visual Programming Language is distinguished from other Microsoft programming languages such as Visual Basic and C#, as...
is a graphical development environment that uses a service and activity catalog.- They can interact graphically, a service or an activity is represented by a block that has inputs and outputs that just need to be dragged from the catalog to the diagram.
- Linking can be done with the mouse, it allows you to define if signals are simultaneous or not, permits you to perform operations on transmitted values...
- VPL also allows you to generate the code of new "macro" services from diagrams created by users.
- It is possible in VPL to easily customize services for different hardware elements.
- RDS 3D simulation environment allows you to simulate the behavior of robots in a virtual world using NVIDIA PhysX technology (3D engine originally written by Ageia) that includes advanced physics.
- There are several simulation environments in RDS. These environments were developed by SimplySim
- Apartment
- Factory
- Modern House
- Outdoor
- Urban
- Many examples and tutorials are available for the different tools, which permits a fast understanding of MRDS. Several applications have been added to the suite, such as Maze Simulator, or Soccer Simulation which is developed by MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
.
- The Kinect sensor can be used on a robot in the RDS environment. RDS also includes a simulated Kinect sensor. In the initial release the Kinect Services for RDS are only licensed for non-commercial use because they depend on the Kinect for Windows SDK Beta (from Microsoft Research) which is also non-commercial. This might change in the future.
Notable applications
- Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
's DARPA Urban Grand ChallengeDARPA Grand ChallengeThe DARPA Grand Challenge is a prize competition for driverless vehicles, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the most prominent research organization of the United States Department of Defense...
autonomous car entry was programmed with MRDS. - MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
uses MRDS's parallel computing foundation libraries, CCR and DSS, for a non-robotic application in the back end of their site. - Indiana UniversityIndiana UniversityIndiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
uses MRDS in a non-robotic application to coordinate a high-performance computing network. - In 2008 MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
launched a simulated roboticsRoboticsRobotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
competition named RoboChamps using MRDS, four challenges were available : maze, sumo, urban, and Mars rover. the simulated environment and robots used by the competition were created by SimplySim and the competition was sponsored by KIA MotorsKia MotorsKia Motors , headquartered in Seoul, is South Korea's second-largest automobile manufacturer, following the Hyundai Motor Company, with sales of over 1.4 million vehicles in 2010...
- The 2009 roboticsRoboticsRobotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
and algorithmAlgorithmIn mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
section of the Imagine CupImagine CupImagine Cup is an annual competition sponsored and hosted by Microsoft Corp. which brings together young technologists worldwide to help resolve some of the world's toughest challenges. The Imagine Cup comprises five major technology competitions, including Software Design, and four challenges...
software competition uses MRDS visual simulation environment. The challenges of this competition were also developed by SimplySim and are improved versions of the RoboChamps challenges.
Critique
- The complication and overhead required to run MRDS prompted Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering to convert their Prospect 12 system from MRDS to IPC++.
Versions and Licensing
- Robotics Studio 1.0 (Commercial and Non-Commercial Use Licenses) -- Release Date: December 18, 2006
- Robotics Studio 1.5 (Commercial and Non-Commercial Use Licenses) -- Release Date: May 2007
- Robotics Studio 1.5 'Refresh' (Commercial and Non-Commercial Use Licenses) -- Release Date: December 13, 2007
- Robotics Developer Studio 2008 Standard Edition (Commercial Use), Academic Edition (Academic use) and Express Edition (Commercial and Non-Commercial Use) -- Release Date: November 18, 2008
- Robotics Developer Studio 2008 R2 Standard Edition (Commercial Use), Academic Edition (Academic use) and Express Edition (Commercial and Non-Commercial Use) -- Release Date: June 17, 2009
- Robotics Developer Studio 2008 R3 -- Release Date: May 20, 2010. With R3, Robotics Developer Studio 2008 is now free and the functionality of all editions and CCR & DSS Toolkit has been combined into the single free edition. R3 is no longer compatible with .NET Compact Framework development and it no longer supports Windows CE.
- Robotics Developer Studio 4 Beta -- Release Date: Sep 17, 2011. This release adds full support for the Kinect sensor via the Kinect for Windows SDK. A Reference Platform Design is included in the documentation, with the first implementation being the Eddie robot from Parallax. It also updates RDS to .NET 4.0 and XNA 4.0.
Supported robots
- ABB Group Robotics - ABB Connect for Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio
- Adept MobileRobots Pioneers (first robots to run under MRDS) Pioneer DX and Pioneer AT Official WebSite (Subsumed under reference design)
- Aldebaran Robotics NaoNao (robot)Nao is an autonomous, programmable, medium-sized humanoid robot, developed by Aldebaran Robotics, a French startup company headquartered in Paris. Project Nao was launched in 2004. On August 15, 2007, Nao replaced Sony's robot dog Aibo as the robot used in the Robot Soccer World Cup Standard...
Official WebSite (Support dropped in latest version) - Arieh Robotics Project Junior (Physical computingPhysical computingPhysical computing, in the broadest sense, means building interactive physical systems by the use of software and hardware that can sense and respond to the analog world. While this definition is broad enough to encompass things such as smart automotive traffic control systems or factory automation...
PC) Official WebSite - CoroWareCoroWareCoroWare is a robotics company based out of Kirkland, WA. CoroWare produces the CoroBot and Explorer mobile robotic product lines, which are four-wheeled robotic development platforms.- History :...
CoroBot and Explorer Official Website - Lego Mindstorms NXTLego Mindstorms NXTLego Mindstorms NXT is a programmable robotics kit released by Lego in late July 2006.It replaced the first-generation Lego Mindstorms kit, which was called the Robotics Invention System. The base kit ships in two versions: the Retail Version and the Education Base Set . It comes with the NXT-G...
Official Website - Lego Mindstorms RCX (Support dropped in latest version)
- iRobot CreateIRobot CreateiRobot Create is a hobbyist robot manufactured by iRobot that is based on the Roomba platform and was introduced in 2007. However, iRobot Create is explicitly designed for robotics development, rather than simply hacking the Roomba...
- KUKAKUKAKUKA is a leading German producer of industrial robots for a variety of industries - from automotive and fabricated metals to food and plastics...
Robotics Educational Framework - ParallaxParallax, Inc. (company)Parallax Inc. is a privately held company in Rocklin, California. Parallax Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells BASIC Stamp microcontrollers, Propeller microcontrollers, microcontroller accessories Parallax Inc. is a privately held company in Rocklin, California. Parallax Inc. designs,...
Boe-BotBoe-BotBOE–Bot is short for Board of Education robot. It is the trade name of a robot kit that is used in college and high school robotics classes. It consists of a main circuit board , a plug–in microcontroller, two small servo motors to drive the wheels, a bread board and a small aluminum chassis that... - ParallaxParallax, Inc. (company)Parallax Inc. is a privately held company in Rocklin, California. Parallax Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells BASIC Stamp microcontrollers, Propeller microcontrollers, microcontroller accessories Parallax Inc. is a privately held company in Rocklin, California. Parallax Inc. designs,...
ScribblerScribbler (robot)The Scribbler is a small, low-cost fully programmable intelligent robot with multiple sensor systems. It is capable of interacting with its environment. It is capable of auto navigation....
. Through IPREInstitute for Personal Robots in EducationInstitute for Personal Robots in Education was initiated by a $1 million grant from Microsoft Research to Bryn Mawr College and the Georgia Institute of Technology and announced in July 2006. IPRE is designing introductory computer science curricula centered around a Personal Robot...
. - ParallaxParallax, Inc. (company)Parallax Inc. is a privately held company in Rocklin, California. Parallax Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells BASIC Stamp microcontrollers, Propeller microcontrollers, microcontroller accessories Parallax Inc. is a privately held company in Rocklin, California. Parallax Inc. designs,...
Eddie robot. Supported directly by software available for download from Parallax. - fischertechnikFischertechnikFischerTechnik is a brand of construction toy. It was invented by Artur Fischer and is produced by FischerTechnik GmbH in Waldachtal, Germany. Fans often refer to FischerTechnik as FT or ft. It is used in education for teaching about simple machines, as well as motorization and mechanisms...
FT16 (Supported through MRDS Codeplex Samples) - Robosoft's robots Official WebSite
- Kondo KHR-1KHR-1The KHR-1 is a programmable, bipedal humanoid robot introduced in June 2004 by a Japanese company Kondo Kagaku. At the time of its introduction it was one of the least expensive programmable bipedal robots . The robot is 34 cm high and has 17 degrees of freedom...
(Supported through MRDS Codeplex Samples) - SegwaySegway PTThe Segway PT is a two-wheeled, self-balancing transportation machine invented by Dean Kamen. It is produced by Segway Inc. of New Hampshire, USA. The name "Segway" is a homophone of "segue" while "PT" denotes personal transporter....
RMP Official WebSite by: Ben Axelrod - Surveyor SRV-1
- RoboticsConnection Traxster. Link
- RoombaDevTools by RoboDynamicsRoboDynamicsRoboDynamics develops technologies that enable robotic telepresence. Robotic telepresence is the ability of a person to instantly transport his presence to a remote location by using a robot to embody him in the remote location....
- uBot-5 from the Laboratory For Perceptual Robotics at University of Massachusetts AmherstUniversity of Massachusetts AmherstThe University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
- Vex Robotics Design System available at CodePlex
- WowWee RoboSapienRoboSapienRoboSapien is a toy-like biomorphic robot designed by Mark Tilden and produced by WowWee toys. The RoboSapien is preprogrammed with moves, and also can be controlled by an infrared remote control included with the toy, or by either a personal computer equipped with an infrared transmitter, and an...
, via the USB-UIRT device - ZMP INC.ZMP INC.The company was established in January 2001, based on the results of the research encouraged the Kitano Symbiotic System Project, under the jurisdiction of Japan‘s MEXT...
e-nuvo WALK Official Website - CNRobot Co. Ltd CRX10CRX10The CRX10 is an autonomous mobile robot platform for education, training and research that was developed by South Korean robotics company CNRobot. CRX10 supports MSRDS, SPL , AVR and Android programming languages. The CRX10 was unveiled on May, 2011.- Description :The robot dimension is 192x197x79.5...
Official Website - RobotinoRobotinoRobotino is a mobile robot system for education, training and research made by Festo Didactic.Robotino is based on an omni directional drive assembly, which enables the system to roam freely. The robot is controlled by an industry-standard PC system, which is powerful enough to plan routes for...
from Festo Didactic Germany
See also
- Player ProjectPlayer ProjectThe Player Project is a project to create free software for research into robotics and sensor systems . Its components include the Player network server and Stage and Gazebo robot platform simulators...
– used in research and post-secondary education (open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
and freeFree softwareFree software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
) - WebotsWebotsWebots is a professional robot simulator widely used for educational purposes.The Webots project started in 1996, initially developed by Dr. Olivier Michel at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland....
- Concurrency and Coordination RuntimeConcurrency and Coordination RuntimeConcurrency and Coordination Runtime is an asynchronous programming library based on .NET Framework from Microsoft distributed with Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio...
- URBIURBIUrbi is an open source cross-platform software platform in C++ used to develop applications for robotics and complex systems. Urbi is based on the UObject distributed C++ component architecture. It also includes the urbiscript orchestration language which is a parallel and event-driven script...
- Robotic mappingRobotic mappingRobotic mapping is related to cartography. The goal for an autonomous robot to be able to construct a map or floor plan and to localize itself in it...
- Robot softwareRobot softwareRobot software is the coded commands that tell a mechanical device what tasks to perform and control its actions. Robot software is used to perform tasks and automate tasks to be performed. Programming robots is a non-trivial task...
- Mobile Robot Programming ToolkitMobile Robot Programming ToolkitThe Mobile Robot Programming Toolkit is a cross-platform and open source C++ library aimed to help robotics researchers to design and implement algorithms related to Simultaneous Localization and Mapping , computer vision and motion planning...
- arduinoArduinoArduino is an open-source single-board microcontroller, descendant of the open-source Wiring platform, designed to make the process of using electronics in multidisciplinary projects more accessible. The hardware consists of a simple open hardware design for the Arduino board with an Atmel AVR...
- GumstixGumstixGumstix is a company founded in 2003 by Gordon Kruberg that produces small single-board computers. The name Gumstix refers to the size of the first such computer being the approximate size of a stick of gum....
- Robot Operating SystemROS (Robot Operating System)Robot Operating System is a software framework for robot software development, providing operating system-like functionality on a heterogenous computer cluster. ROS was originally developed in 2007 under the name switchyard by the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in support of the...
External links
- Microsoft MSDN robotics pages
- Microsoft Robotics Studio: An Introduction
- Microsoft Robotics Studio Runtime – An Introduction
- MRDS Codeplex Samples (MRDS 2008 R3)
- Additional Samples from Professional Robotics Developer Studio textbook (MRDS 2008 R3)
- Microsoft Robotics Studio Community - Turkey
- Microsoft robotics newsgroup from Google Groups
- Channel9 wiki page about Microsoft Robotics Studio
- www.Conscious-Robots.com pages for MSRS (Microsoft Robotics Studio)
- PhysX by Ageia Home
- Robubox's MSRS tutorials and simulator samples Official Website
- SimplySim : MRDS 3D simulation company
- Imagine Cup 2009 : Robotics & Algorithm