Welcome to the May 2007 Community Technical Preview of Microsoft Robotics Studio (1.5)A Letter from Tandy Trower, General Manager, Microsoft Robotics Group Time to provide an update with information about the latest preview of our upcoming 1.5 release. As noted in my last “Welcome” post, the 1.5 release includes not only general improvements and enhancements throughout the toolkit, but also support for Windows CE and Windows Mobile devices. Full compilation of services for Microsoft Visual Programming Language – While not fully integrated yet, we want to give you an opportunity to try out the new support in VPL for compiling services. In 1.0 release of VPL, services you build run interpreted, but with this preview they can be compiled. Visual Studio Templates for VB.Net and C# - Tired of having to run DSSNewService separately? Now from the Visual Studio IDE you can select templates to create VB.Net and C# service projects. DSS binary serialization – We have added a new option for serialization of data that improves data transfer 2 to 4 times between nodes. For compatibility with existing applications you can still use HTTP and TCP serialization. DSS user guide – You asked for it and we deliver it! A fresh new introduction and user guide for getting started with DSS. Updated Soccer Simulation Package – Available separately, but concurrent with this release is the latest update to our Soccer Simulation competition. Tired of competing with wheeled robots? Want a new challenge? With this update we also announce the release of a new simulated robot player called RobuDog from Robosoft. To use this, install our latest CTP software, the Soccer Simulation update, and then go download Robosoft’s new model and services. Updated Robot Sumo Simulation - Support for CE is certain to get a good workout at the upcoming MEDC 2007 robot sumo competition. But as mentioned in my update last month, even if you can’t come to this event, you can stage your competitions using our new Robot Sumo simulation, or try building your own sumo robots using the same components that the MEDC players. This is wraps up our second preview of the new 1.5, but we are not done yet! Tandy Trower
General Manager, Microsoft Robotics Group
Microsoft Corporation |