Programming Microsoft® Robotics Studio (Paperback)

by Sara Morgan (Author)
Key Phrases: manifest editor, visual programming language, bumper service, Visual Studio, Programming Microsoft Robotics Studio, Control Panel (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Get the practical reference to programming robotic applications by using the Microsoft Robotics Studio. Ideal for programmers familiar with Windows® based development using Microsoft Visual Studio® and the Microsoft .NET Framework, this guide expertly illustrates how to use the Robotics Studio. You ll discover how to use the services provided in the Robotics Studio to handle navigation and remote control, speech, video, and intelligent behavior in a robotic device. It includes coverage of the included Visual Programming Language, plus code examples in Microsoft Visual C#®.

Key Book Benefits:

Delivers practical guidance about how services relate to programming robots

Provides references to simulations, navigation and remote control, speech and video, and much more

Features sample code in Visual Programming Language and Visual C#

About the Author
Sara Morgan is a Microsoft MVP for Office Communications Server; she has spent many years developing with speech-recognition and other automation technologies. Her first book, Building Intelligent .NET Applications: Agents, Data Mining, Rule-Based Systems, and Speech Processing, was published in 2005. She is a frequent contributor to publications, print and online, such as MSDN® Magazine and devx.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (March 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735624321
• ISBN-13: 978-0735624320
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #286,940 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Glad to finally have a book for MSRS, April 6, 2008

By	T. Clark - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a good start but I can't wait for the next edition (if there is one). The author attempted too much coverage for the limited number of pages (a little over 200). I have completed all of the Microsoft Tutorials for MSRS and this book is a refreshing change. The author begins with coverage of SERVICES and does not include any illustrations. Microsoft Tutorials and Powerpoint presentations have several great illustrations on SERVICES. Also, the coverage of SERVICES is completed in an orderly manner but not in the same order used in the coding chapters (chapters 5 and later). There are the expected typos, as you expect in a new book. A couple can cause frustration until you figure out what happened.

I will say that MSRS books are very much needed. While MSRS is not a huge software product, it contains several new concepts for many programmers. I have a background in C, C++, C#, and VB. MSRS is best when using C#.

In summary:
1. I would have liked to have had a thicker book (like the one coming out in June from other authors.
2. The author of this book made the decision to only do superficial coverage of MSRS subjects such as Simulation and VPL which I believe will be used quite a bit in academic enviorments and more everywhere in the future. The VPL feature of C# code generation is important and deserved move attention.
3. The author's style of writing is great and very readable. I wish her well and look forward to a 2nd edition.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but needs more, June 28, 2008

By	Quintin Balsdon (Johannesburg, South Africa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book, much like Professional Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (Wrox Programmer to Programmer), gives good examples, but only for what is explained. If you are interested in doing something like converting hardware robotics applications to simulations, then this is NOT the book for you. Also, to do the examples, you would require to have the robots, and each chapter makes use of a different robot.

If you are only interested in the hardware and not the simulation, then this book is excellent. However simulations (one of the KEY features in MSRS-MRDS) is sorely missed. Especially in conversion between hardware and simulation projects.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dissapointing, June 18, 2008

By	Blake C. Mann - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is not very helpful for someone trying to learn MRDS. You would be better off sticking to the tutorials on the MS website. There is very little detail about how to actually get started writing robotics software. The best I can say about it is it references other interesting projects. I wonder if this author is actually a MRDS developer because if she was she would have gone into much more detail about the nuts and bolts of MRDS.