Professional Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Trevor Taylor (Author)
Key Phrases: robotics hardware, differential drive, simulation editor, Microsoft Robotics Studio, Visual Studio, Robotics Developer Studio Fundamentals (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Wrox's Professional Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio is one of the first guides to Microsoft's new platform for visualizing and programming robotics applications. Written by the founding architect of the product, Professional Microsoft Robotics Studio is heavy on examples making this a hands-on guide that will get readers building robotics applications quickly using 3 case-study robots: an indoor security robot, winning Magellan competitor and a chess-playing robotic arm.

Topics include:

• Common Concurrency Runtime
• Sending and Receiving Messages
• Building and Accessing Services
• Using a browser and the Internet as the UI for a robot
• Using supported hardware and integrating new hardware
• Simulating the real world for robotic interactions
• Extending the simulation environment
• Deploying to hardware
• Using the Visual Programming Language
• and more.

Source code and online support at Wrox.com.

From the Back Cover

Professional Microsoft RoboticsDeveloper Studio

Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (MRDS) offers an exciting new wayto program robots in the Windows environment. With key portions of theMRDS code available in source form, it is readily extensible and offersnumerous opportunities for programmers and hobbyists. This comprehensivebook illustrates creative ways to use the tools and libraries in MRDS so you can start building innovative new robotics applications.

The book begins with a brief overview of MRDS and then launches into MRDSconcepts and takes a look at fundamental code patterns that can be used in MRDS programming. You'll work through examples—all in C#—of common tasks, including an examination of the physics features of the MRDS simulator. As the chapters progress, so does the level of difficulty and you'll gradually evolve from navigating a simple robot around a simulated course to controlling simulated and actual robotic arms, and finally, to an autonomous robot that runs with an embedded PC or PDA.

What you will learn from this book

• How to program in the multi-threaded environment provided by the concurrency and coordination runtime

• Suggestions for starting and stopping services, configuring services, and packaging your services for deployment

• Techniques for building new services from scratch and then testing them

• How to build your own simulated environments and robots using the Visual Simulation Environment

• What robots are supported under MRDS and how to select one for purchase

Who this book is for
This book is for programmers who are interested in becoming proficient in the rapidly growing field of robotics. All examples featured in the book are in C#, which is the preferred language for MRDS.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 826 pages
• Publisher: Wrox (May 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470141077
• ISBN-13: 978-0470141076
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #148,415 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #37 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence > Robotics
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for the determined, April 21, 2009

By	Drew Wang (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

When I first got the book a few months ago, I had a hard time getting into it in large part because I could not readily build the sample codes associated with the earlier chapters. All the codes, as downloaded from the book's companion website, seemed to have reference and path issues. I was also using VC# Express along with MRDS Express at the time, so I could not avail myself of some of the helpful hints given in the book. Since then, I have switched over to Visual Studio Professional along with MRDS Professional, and having now figured out how to resolve those reference issues in the sample codes (easily done), I must say I have a new found appreciation for what the authors have accomplished with this tome. They obviously know their stuff, and for me, starting with Chapter 6 which details the creation of the Corobot robot in the simulation engine, the book truly becomes invaluable. Indeed, I now find myself referring back to the earlier chapters as well with great relish. Like a fine wine, this books apparently just needs to be given a bit of time to 'breathe' in one's mind in order to reach its full potency. So I want to amend my earlier two-star rating to five stars. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is using MRDS.

(Note: The two-star rating as shown is based on my earlier review filed in April 2009. For some reason, Amazon only allows me to edit the text of my earlier review, but not the star rating.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want deep knowledge, this is the book., December 5, 2008

By	Philip Wheat (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is not an intro book, but is the book you want if you want in depth knowledge. Very good book, but you'll likely use it as a reference rather than a tutorial as the topics are pretty targeted.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thorough but not easy material to get through, October 25, 2008

By	Daniel Sionov (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have not yet completed reading this book though I have read the first few chapters.

My first impression is that although this book is fairly thorough and comprehensive, it's not the easiest material to get through.

The authors start with the CCR (Concurrency and Coordination Run-Time) and discuss it in such a way that it has nothing to do with robotics. Obviously, it makes sense as to why you would have a specialized set of components to handle concurrency, etc., but it helps to know how it fits in the big picture of robotics programming.

Anyway, I don't regret having purchased this book, but I wish it was laid out more in the context of robotics rather than just the individual components of the Microsoft Robotics Studio.