wat is Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 Express Edition

[superchiku]

wat is Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 Express Edition ...?

i heard that it has api for robotic control and also vision processing... any idea wat it is??

[yesus]

cool find mate!
here's the official download :
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=84c5b49f-0f9c-4182-a267-a951328d3fbd&displaylang=en

looks like good old bill devoted whole website to robotics:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/robotics/default.aspx

[householdutensils]

Word on the grapevine is that it's got a pretty spanking simulation environment too

[superchiku]

oh...i need to download..it for my upcoming project that iam gonna do in the summer

[Admin]

I consider it useless garbage

If you don't believe me, download and install it, then try and figure out what it even does

If you want more details on why we don't like/use it, search the forum!

[superchiku]

all hail the admin...if u said itsa wase then no need to waste my download limit...

[householdutensils]

Personally I think this a step in the right direction. If we want Robotics to become a staple of modern life, we need a total development package. This is the direction that MS is going, and while it might not be the bees knees atm, eventually it could do for commercial robotics development what MS Dynamics is doing for Business computing, and what Visual Studio did for Windows Development. Accessibility and manageability is KEY.

[Webbot]

... and just when everyone is getting to understand it - they will bring out a new version that isn't backwards compatible  and will drop all support for the version you've got

[householdutensils]

5 years  between VS and VS.net

[TrickyNekro]

A big big big bul.............
There isn't one hardware developer that doesn't agree with me...
You know hardware? You master every application... period!!!
You may have a very fast dsp let's say...
Usually ARMs are used as dsp's... You can upload them a sybian and then
just write a java applications to do anything....
But..... Is it the same to know the hardware and handle the controller as you really
want???
Noway.....

So.... The higher the level of the programming language the lower your knowledge
on the hardware...

Some times.... it's necessary.... but if you really can know the hardware... don't expect that
there are many people doing the same with you...

Regards

[superchiku]

rightly said sumtimes u need the idea of the underying hardware....

[householdutensils]

In order to develop complex applications, you NEED abstraction. You NEED to be able to define complex data structures. I'm not saying that we should scrap the lower level embedded development, not at all. I'm saying there's nothing wrong with developing tools for that higher level stuff that is becoming increasingly important in emergent robotics, and if those tools are encapsulated in an integrated environment where they can be made to interact with ease, well....that's just all the better.

Besides, it's not the hardware that people don't understand, it's the software layers between the hardware and the application

[superchiku]

in time ...evolution will take...robots will not be jst abthardware and software...but sumthing more than that ..ma be true cyborgs...or humanoids...watever it is ...a complete understanding of hardware software and biology is much important...

[householdutensils]

While we may be making headway in NeuroScience, Cognitive Science, DSA, Cybernetics etc, this stuff is not going to be necessary, or cost effective, for practical industrial or commercial robotics roles. The grunt work in the factories is still going to be done by traditional robots, and as moores law continues to prove the driving force in IT advancement, these traditional robots are only going to become cheaper and more powerful.


Eventually, we're going to need to take a high level approach to tackle the complicated mathematics and algorithm heavy programming of the increasingly precise applications that robots are starting to tackle in industrial environments, and that's going to be a lot easier if we have the right tools for the job.



In fact, if I had to hazard a guess at the far future of robots, I see us running massively powerful servers and treating robots like thin clients. Running all the software on the server apart from localized motor function algorithms, time sensitive feedback, and such.

[madchimp]

In fact, if I had to hazard a guess at the far future of robots, I see us running massively powerful servers and treating robots like thin clients. Running all the software on the server apart from localized motor function algorithms, time sensitive feedback, and such.

I could see that but do you really want MS to be the back bone for that. Do we really want our robots going to blue screen of death all the time. Do we really want to be forced to upgrade when Billy tells us to. I can also see MS causing compatibility issues look what they tried to do with Java.

[householdutensils]

In fact, if I had to hazard a guess at the far future of robots, I see us running massively powerful servers and treating robots like thin clients. Running all the software on the server apart from localized motor function algorithms, time sensitive feedback, and such.

I could see that but do you really want MS to be the back bone for that. Do we really want our robots going to blue screen of death all the time. Do we really want to be forced to upgrade when Billy tells us to. I can also see MS causing compatibility issues look what they tried to do with Java.

Haha no, I won't use MS Home Server on my home network, and I sure as hell wouldn't use a MS Server product for a distributed robotics platform, not because of stability, (I work for a company that uses windows server products and has a annual up time in the 90s percent range (Minus planned outages)), but because I'm much more experienced with an Apache environment.

What I'm saying there is a definite need for people to start thinking about the future of commercial robotics development, and I applaud MS for taking the first step. I'm not saying MS should have the ONLY solution, I like to have a open source choice as much as the next guy, but I think they are on the right track with Robotics Studio.

[superchiku]

ya in that aspct he is right...ms is starting an initiative and they should be applauded for that ...