Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio Tutorial

Introduction to Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio

This is a no-cost tutorial offered to all registered attendees at the 2009 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference at the University of Washington on Sunday 28th June 2009 at 6:30pm. Pizza and soda will be provided.

Registration:

The tutorial is free but registration is required. Early registration deadline is June 22, 2009. We cannot guarantee acceptance after the deadline. Please RSVP for catering and room capacity purposes by sending an e-mail with your name and affiliation (university or other employer) to RDS Tutorial.

Organizers:

Stewart Tansley, PhD, Microsoft External Research
Trevor Taylor, PhD, Microsoft Robotics Group
Pavel Khijniak, Microsoft Robotics Group

Abstract:

Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (RDS) is a general-purpose software platform for developing applications that require a high level of concurrency in a distributed environment, especially typical of robotics. It has been designed so that it can easily interface with a wide variety of hardware devices. The architecture uses a lightweight service-oriented approach that scales well, enabling very high messaging throughput.

This lecture-style tutorial provides an overview of RDS and its various components supplemented by numerous live demonstrations. The tutorial is based on the latest version of RDS 2008, released in November 2008.

Topics:

  • Overview of Robotics Developer Studio
  • Concurrency and Coordination Runtime
    • Ports
    • Message Handling (Receivers)
  • REST-based Architecture
    • Contracts
    • State
    • Operations
    • Notifications
  • Decentralized Software Services
    • Manifests
    • Partnerships
    • Subscriptions
  • Visual Simulation Environment
  • Visual Programming Language

Time:

2 hours (6:30pm to 8:30pm)

Please arrive on time so we can get the food/drink out of the way and start the presentation.

Place:

Electrical Engineering Building, EEB 003

Pre-requisites:

  • The tutorial is software programming-oriented, but geared to robotics researchers
  • No prior knowledge of RDS is assumed (but if you have some, that is welcome)
  • Some managed code programming experience is assumed (.NET or Java)
  • Some experience with distributed and concurrent programming is beneficial
  • Some familiarity with service-oriented architectures is also helpful
  • Useful pre-reading: Getting Started with RDS

If you bring your own laptop, you can pre-install RDS from http://www.microsoft.com/robotics to follow along. USB Flash Drives will also be available at the tutorial with the latest software.

More about the presenters:

Trevor Taylor is a Program Manager in the Microsoft Robotics Group. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2008 he was a Lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology where his research included Visual SLAM and robotics. He is the co-author of the definitive textbook on RDS entitled "Professional Robotics Developer Studio" from Wrox Press.

Pavel Khijniak is a Software Developer in the Microsoft Robotics Group. He has worked on every release of RDS to date, and on many different features of the product including VPL, support for various programming languages, etc. Before RDS he worked in the Advanced Strategies and Platforms incubation team, and the Windows Core OS team.

 

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